Shattergrounds

A recovery crew scrapped me off the ground where I had fallen, my cube hadn't signaled download to any of the transmission nodes I had set up, something I found more shocking than the rapid download into a new Lhost I was subject to in the field. Either the QAZ was emitting enough distortion to cause signal blackouts or more of my nodes had been compromised. Neither offered much comfort. The data pack I had taken from Rhodan was still in my possession, so I quickly linked up with another road clearing crew to get off the beltway and as far from Edda as possible. If the QAZ was cooking up that much distortion, it would seem whatever the EI was doing to contain it wasn't working.
We saw an O-12 patrol ship looming in the horizon and closing fast, and thinking back on the trouble the last time we ran into one of their patrols we decided it best to try to avoid them. We had just ducked off the main beltway into a beltway beautification project, when we heard the tell tale signs of a light patrol shuttle landing ahead of us. It seems we were spotted, or these O-12 operatives chose that time for a nice stroll in the park.
Two Chaksa held the flanks while the right was backed up by a Kaauri and Krakot, and the left was backed by a Bounty Hunter. Further up the right flank the Liberto took position the rooftop of a massive green room. Holding the center was Le Muet, a solo Makaul, and the Sukeul's team, which included a Taagma who had disguised herself as Neema. Apparently the most high profile Tohaa in the Human Sphere was a better disguise than to remain undisguised as a member of the most infamous and wanted units in the Sphere. Whenever I deployed alongside any of these units in Durgama, or Novvy Bangkok my memory seemed hazy surrounding them. However, this time it wasn't. Just another concerning development to follow up on once my bacon was out of the fire.

The O-12 patrol's left flank was composed of a Verangian, a Monstrucker, a Kappa Hacker, and Raveneye Officer. The center was held by a Roadbot, a Beta Trooper, and a Psy-Cop. Their right flank was much less accessible as it was covered by a large structure so only a Fuzzbot and another Verangian was enough to cover that area. On the same rooftop as the Liberto, the Sirius Team took position.

The Sirius team thought to secure the roof top, but the Liberto was able to down it with a blast of its shotgun while being gunned down in turn.

The Betatrooper advanced forward, but unable to get a good target, hid behind the greenhouse. The Fuzzbot moved up as well as both Verangians. Then the Psy-Cop, Verangians, and the Beta trooper all set up suppressive fire lanes.

Le Muet shot the Psy-Cop, but the silent sniper's shot found more guardrail than flesh, and the Psy-Cop was able to duck further back into cover. Seeing an unabstucted path the Chaksa took the opportunity advance towards the large structure and hid itself behind the stairway. The Makaul, and Krakot advanced on the Beta Trooper's position, with the Morat leaping onto the rooftop. Crawling along until she was in position to leap onto the Beta, the Krakot's blade failed to find any chip in the Beta trooper's armor, and she was torn apart in by gunfire in the process.

The Beta trooper moved into a firing position and shot down the Makaul. It then moved around the greenhouse building and removed the Kaauri from the field. Taking advantage of the its climbing ability the Beta took to the rooftop and found a firing position to take out the Bounty Hunter as well.

Le Muet moved from his position, taking shots at the Beta on the roofops, but the the robot managed to dodge each round, and remained unscathed by the time Le Muet reached the top steps of the structure on our left flank. The Chaksa on the right flank saw that it would need to advance its position and ended near the greenhouse.

The Verangian rushed forward into the sight of the Chaksa, and fell in the exchange of shrapnel and fire while the Chaksa stood firm. The Psy-Cop moved up to engange Le Muet in close range, using the weight of its weapon's fire to out shoot the sniper, bringing him down after a few bursts.

The Psy-Cop then finished the job the Verangian couldn't, and dropped the Chaksa from her vantage point. The Beta trooper moved along the roof top to secure a forward position extremely close to our lines, and the Roadbot, finally out from Le Muet's gaze was able to race forwards to reinforce the center.

We had a slim margin of error to seize victory from what was looking like a solid defeat, and a lot of it relied on me delivering a medkit full of stems to the unconscious Le Muet.

The Sukeul's team moved forward with the Makaul taking point, but this Tohaa warrior was gunned down by the Roadbot and Psy-Cop before he could drop any covering smoke. Le Muet moved out from his position to gun down the Psy-Cop, taking a blast of a nanopulser in return and fell right back to the floor, his objective complete.

Then it was up the the Taagma, to race down the stairs, and doge the incoming fire from the Roadbot to secure a route out along with the Chaksa who was still hiding behind a set of stairs.

The Sukeul than made her run for it. She was able to return fire at the Roadbot, neither landing a shot, but then had to take a full sprint narrowly avoiding the Roadbots fire to assist me in securing an escape.

Baffled by our sudden escape, we could hear the patrol shouting orders and calling for back up as we made our way deeper into the park, calling in backup of our own.