Shattergrounds

Personal Log: Caporal-chef Marcel Gauthier, Loup-Garous
Fishing Village of Hammerfest, Olkonir, Concilium Prima
3 October, 80 NC

The night of our patrol was warm, with a gentle breeze blowing off the water. The night was clear but no moon was out to light the area, we were moving in darkness, in silence. We had received word that a group of Nomads had set up a relay station to hack into our comms network. This could not be allowed, nor could we trust them after their assaults on our positions on the Ravenye. Unfortunately for us, the only way we Ariadnans can deal with Nomad hacking is old fashioned firepower.

We managed to make it to the Nomad positions and set ourselves up for an ambush, but our cover was blown by our Apache, Jacques, who had somehow gotten himself drunk on the way here and crashed headlong through some metal containers, smashing into a wall and knocking himself out cold. Needless to say, after much silent cursing, the enemy was upon us.
(OOC: I forgot to deploy this Apache...)

The Nomads charged us with their bounty hunters to start the show. The first one roared down our left flank, guns blazing, bypassing one chasseur and taking fire from two others, shrugging off the rounds as if they were nothing, while wounding Caporal Bernard. Her rampage was finally brought to an end through the suppressive fire of Moblot Sergent Chevalier. The second bounty hunter came down our right flank and dispatched Caporal Durant after an intense firefight. They followed up with a Zellenkrieger on the left flank that tried to flush out Caporal Fournier, but failed. We managed to recover from our initial blunder caused by the thrice-damned Jacques and began our counterattack.

My squad leader, Tristan Lemaire, attempted to engage the enemy TR bot with his viral sniper rifle. Alas, this was not his day, his shots pinged harmlessly off the rail while the bots were true. Realizing engaging the TR bot was a lost cause, my squad mate, Louis Dupont, moved to engage the bounty hunter, his viral rounds quickly leaving her a pile of goop. He then proceeded to spec fire some obscured enemies, successfully eliminating Sforza, who was masquerading as Raoul Spector, but unable to remove Perseus or a stempler zond. Afterwards, he took up position to cover the fire lane. On our left flank, our 112, Rogier Fabien, revived Lemaire. Reynold Paquet attempted to engage the Zellenkrieger on the left flank but was unable to get past the enemy's smoke. Unable to see the enemy, he proceeded to the storage crate to recover d-charges to use against the enemy console being set up before returning to position to cover the area.

Our counterattack did bloody the enemy, but we were soon to suffer heavier casualties. The Zellenkrieger on the left engaged Fournier with a pulzar but could not get past the chassuer's agility. Becoming incredibly frustrated, the zellenkrieger berserk charged Fournier, who, knowing he was unlikely survive, used his explosive charges against him. The Zellenkrieger disappeared in a cloud of pink mist, but not before smashing in Fournier's skull. The Nomads then brought their puppet bots forward, who would prove to be incredibly painful. They came down our right flank, with the red fury engaging, and wounding, Dupont before the shotgun wielder advanced around the corner and fired on Sergent Chavalier and Metro Lamar. They both managed to avoid fire for a time before falling, while Paquet eventually managed to damage it. The shotgun puppet then switched places with a red fury wielding bastard, who wounded Paquet. Our position was becoming precarious and time was of the essence.

Lemaire once again engaged the TR bot and it went just as well as the first time. I cursed his foolishness but realized it was moot. What was done, was done. My blood was up and I wanted to do something to avenge my comrades. I advanced up the stairs to the platform that Dupont had been on in order to engage the puppets that had wounded so many of my comrades. While I climbed the stairs, our 112 attempted to revive our comrades but he was unable to get a shot on them. As I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear the movement of the puppets and carefully positioned myself to take them on. In two quick bursts they were ended and I had avenged my comrades, before moving on to the now d-charge equipped Zellenkrieger, dispatching her easily. Unfortunately, I could not eliminate the puppet master who was the real murderer. I then took up overwatch to try to defend our position.

With all their forward units eliminated and being pressed for time, the Nomads were forced to be aggressive with Perseus and their stempler. They advanced, the stempler trying to identify our informant that we needed to exfil. Our 112, Fabien, attempted to engage the stempler but was felled by Perseus. The stempler then proceed to try, and fail repeatedly, to identify our informant, before my shots finally eliminated it. It was comical how inept the stupid thing was. So much for Nomad tech. If I'm being charitable, my shots against it probably contributed to its incompetence. Perseus then advanced for our commlink, shrugging off all incoming fire. It was certain that he would manage to destroy the commlink. I had resigned myself to that fact. However, by some miracle, the armor deflected all his blows and he was stuck staring down a machine that had dared to defy him, the mighty Perseus. At this point they were spent and we had a chance to snap victory from the jaws of defeat.

With Perseus distracted, our sober Apache, Louvel Desroches, charged up the field, dodging flash pulses, to secure the enemy HVT. I can only imagine the look of terror on the poor person's face as this rabid beast grabbed him from behind and started dragging him off. I must admit, imagining the terror brings a modicum of relief from this mess. As Desroches charged upfield, one of Bruant's disciples made a mad dash to destroy the Nomad commlink. Despite all odds, he made it there and planted the charges but was felled by a mine. The charges went off and for a moment I thought he had succeeded, but alas, the commlink stood. I let out a torrent of curses as I moved to help evacuate our wounded comrades and escape this charnel house.

We made too many avoidable mistakes this mission, chief amongst them was not making sure Jacques hadn't brought alcohol. Needless to say, that idiot has been severely reprimanded and won't think about touching it for a while. We made some critical errors that nearly cost us everything and it was only through shear dumb luck that we managed what we did in the end. The battle was incredibly costly, especially in light of our need to still rebuild our forces. We must do better in the future, Merovingia can ill afford casualties this heavy in every battle.

Vive la Merovingia!