Shattergrounds

All entries and exits out of the Rhodan spaceport were rapidly and efficiently being sealed off by the forces of the Combined, but Beltway 594 appeared to be the least secure route out of the city. It seemed the Pan-O corporate bureaucracy had finished the paperwork authorizing military action to oust the EI from Edda, (or, if rumors of collusion between O-12, Combined, and Pan-O were true, to position themselves to be the main beneficiary of any technology shared in the 'cultural exchange'). We had crews in the area clearing the Beltway of debris to be used as an evacuation corridor, and I attached myself to one of these crews to begin my exit from the city so I could get back to analyze the flight information I had gathered from the spaceport. Unfortunately, I had not anticipated the until now rather sleepy presence of O-12, to be on high alert and conducting extensive patrols of the Beltway with their most jumpy and trigger happy officers. The trouble started about an hour outside of the Spaceport when when came across a crashed Shasvastii light assault craft.
Our Karakot contractors, hired for their experience constructing, and deconstructing, Morat fortifications during combat situations, advanced to remove the ship from the roadway. Neema and her team, along with the bounty hunter Taagma held back, while the Liberto, Kaauri, and Nikoul, (the latter digging himself into a fortified position) covered the Krakots as they approached the ship, alert for any signs of Shasvastii ambush.

However it wasn't Shasvastii eyes that fell upon our team, but that of a O-12 patrol. For a moment, I thought we would be able to avoid confrontation by showing the patrol our paperwork was in order, but upon seeing the Morats in our crew, one of the Raveneye officers called in a Zeta unit, and all hell broke loose.

One of the Krakots was pinned by the Zeta, but the other ran up the the flank, right through an E/M mine, the Morat's combat conditioning kicking in to prevent any confusion due to the lack of coms. As she rounded the corner of one of the buildings she traded fire with the Kappa hacker, both of them going down in the exchange.

The Makaul in Neema's team moved to a position to cover the remaining Krakot in smoke so it could move to a covered position. Then Neema, the Sakiel, Kaauri, and Nikoul coordinated their fire on the Kappa covering our position with a Missile Launcher. The Kappa, seeking to take out the high profile Neema, ignored the fire from the other sources striking her with a direct missile blast, but the shot only managed to kill her armor, the symbiont melting off of her as the Kappa went down to the others' concentrated fire.

The Bounty Hunter put up suppressive fire just as the Zeta roared into action.

The enormous Tag rushed into position, and took out the Kaauri after a brief confrontation. It then set its sights on the Liberto, and brought low the freedom fighter which had been relieved by the Oko. It then moved up to bring down the bounty hunter. However it seemed the operator felt they had over extended their TAG, (or perhaps worrying about the extra paperwork it have to file for the use of excessive force on a human), and pulled back to friendlier lines.

Both the Krakot and Makaul were out of sight of any hostiles as they advanced, but the Sakiel had to keep itself in check to prevent itself from becoming the next target of the Zeta. The Krakot rushed forwards towards the Oko, and past an anomaly on our comlogs. The Copperbot, hearing the Morat's mad dash retreated further back. This allowed the Krakot to take a moment to see if it could sort out that anomaly. The Sarko tried to shoot, but its shot went wide as it was felled by a hail of flechette.

Still mad with rage, but savvy enough to not get its head blown off by the Zeta, the Krakot ducked low and took out the Oko, while once again avoiding the return fire. Crawling low until it was close enough, it let out a bellow and made a berserker charge at the Zeta. The Zeta sprayed it with its riot stopper foam, but the leapt through the foam and stuck right onto the battle tag.

I dropped in close to the Zeta.

I had hoped it would have been distracted enough by the Krakot, I could wedge the blade I use for cube recovery somewhere vital and stop the TAG from dispensing any more 'justice'. Unfortunately, while my mono blade is sharp enough to cut a diamond, my combat skills are rustier than a pick axe left in that abandoned diamond mine.

The remaining Kappa and the two Raveneye officers moved up firing on the Krakot locked in combat with the Zeta. The Kappa's aim was well placed and it was able to down the berserker without causing any more damage to the TAG, leaving me in the regrettable position of keeping it occupied. The team then took aim at the Makaul, and removed him as a threat. Taking up a slightly forward position, but unwilling to extend themselves too far without their TAG backing them up, the Officer on our right flank, placed an E/M mine.

With the Zeta otherwise occupied the Sakiel dashed forward looking for a target. Neema having recovered from the loss of her armor, and seeing the situation was dire, advanced towards the closest Raveneye, and though the Officer survived the first salvo, it didn't survive the second.

Neema's coms survived the E/M blast, but she had little time to grab cover before the remnants of the O-12 Patrol countered.

However, the counter was not as well organized as I anticipated, as it seemed that Neema had taken out their commanding officer. The Zeta flicked me aside like a spent cigarette butt, and moved forward to shoot Neema and the Sakiel. The Sakiel managed to out shoot it, but as the flames of the rocket licked around its chassis it took deadly aim at Neema, and she fell to its hyper velocity shells. Both the Raveneye and the Kappa moved forwards, but the Sakiel needed to be removed for them to achieve victory, so their remaining Sarko took it upon itself to remove the Sakiel from the equation. But this shark's teeth only found board in the form of the Sakiel's symbiont, and was hooked by the vigilante Nikoul in return.

Likely already dreading the paperwork awaiting them back at the station for an incident with such high loss of personnel and equipment, the remaining O-12 units fell back leaving the remnants of our crew to recover our fallen.