Shattergrounds

This is Our Land!
Dramatis Personae:
Cyber Strikeforce
• 1st Lt Avram Slater (Raveneye Officer)
• 2nd Lt Yousef Gold (Raveneye Officer)
• Sgt Marius Sharpe (Kappa Sniper)
• Prv Nathan Reynolds (Kappa Hacker)
• Prv Mal Filion (Kappa Hacker)
• Zephyr (Zeta)
• Arcee (Roadbot)
• Chromia (Roadbot) & Boltflash (Sidebot)
• Agt Miriam Stein (Cyberghost)
• Agt Sal Din (Sarko)
• Aveto (Varangian)
• Casanova (HVT)

Ikari Pirates
• Sgt Ren (Brawler Lt)
• Sora (Druze KHD)
• Kaito (Tanko Missile)
• Jiro (Brawler Sniper)
• Riku (Digger)
• Daichi & Daisuke (Bounty Hunters)
• Akira (Wu-Ming)
• Yuki (Ninja Hacker)

Prologue: Opportunists and Scavengers

Lieutenant Slater dashed across the rooftop and took up a position against the parapet as his team moved into position.

“Contact confirmed. Ikari pirates identified in the Rhodan Spaceport. They have locked down one of the flight beacons in the area. We will secure the near beacon before retrieving the one that they’ve taken.”

A chorus of confirmations replied over the team’s comms. Not long ago these pirates wouldn’t have dared make an assault like this on Concilium, not to mention Edda, but those time had passed. With the current turmoil on the planet the scavengers were circling, and Lt. Slater knew that it would take everything the O-12 security forces could do to see their home through this storm.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1.1 – Here come the cops!

“Here they come boys” Sgt Ren barked over comms.
“That’s much faster than we thought they’d be here. We need more time to stow the beacon and for evac to get back” Sora responded.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head” Kaito laughed, “Jiro and I have things covered here. If you want feel free to push them back and get the other beacon while we wait for evac”.

With that the teams stolen Lu Duan whirred into motion, advancing on the enemy position. Kaito heard explosions in the distance and a curse over the comms.

“Bastards took out the bot!” Sora swore, “We need that enemy sniper taken out”.

With that the brothers Daichi and Daisuke jumped into action with their Wu-Ming minder close behind. “Don’t worry, we’ll get them” Daichi joked. “We brought the big toys today” Daisuke finished.

More gunfire and the reports came back that the enemy sniper was down. Now they just had to deal with the enemy TAG. Perhaps because he felt confident because he’d actually brought a gun for once, or maybe just because he was extra juiced up, Riku ran forward screaming, firing his HMG into the enemy Zeta. After exchanging gunfire Kaito saw the Digger falling back bleeding.

“I got im. Well atleast I tore a chunk into him” Riku reported, coughing out a bit of his own blood.
Kaito braced, preparing for the counter assault he knew would be coming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1.2 – Drive them back!

Lieutenant Slater took in the reports from his squad. Sergeant Sharpe was injured but still alive, and the enemy had a strong defensive position near the other beacon. He ordered Zephyr forward, but the TAG was unable to advance. After trading fire back and forth with the emplaced enemy Tanko, and being patched up by the team’s engineer, Zephyr reported that for the time being it was pinned down.

Seizing the opportunity presented by the more crowded right flank, and the more exposed forward position taken up by the enemy bounty hunters Lt. Slater ordered Arcee and their attached oko to push up and drive them out. The roadbot quickly responded dashing up the field. First they engaged the enemy bounty hunter wielding a red fury. Arcee quickly dispatched this threat before continuing forward on their squad mate. Then enemy hunter, taken aback by the speed of the roadbot’s assault was put down just as quickly. With most of the enemy’s forward team taken down Arcee took the opportunity to fire a panzerfaust across the enemy flank, neutralizing Yojimbo (who had foolishly decided to work with these pirate), while their Oko moved forward catching the enemy Wu-Ming within the team’s repeater net.

Private Filion quickly used this opportunity to shutdown the enemy HI’s armour, locking them inside. As the Arcee and the Oko pulled back to assume safer positions they found themselves facing a torrent of gun fire. They had misgauged where the enemy forces were…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2.1 – We need to push them back.

Reports chimed through Sora’s comms. The forward strike team was completely disabled, the twins were down and Akira’s suit was locked down. At this point it wasn’t a question of pushing forward, it was a matter of trying to hold on long enough to evac with the beacon they’d secured and salvage what they could from this mission. To have any hope of this she’d need to deal with those damn bots.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bullets racked into Arcee as she tried to dodge out of the way. How could she have been so foolish and not accounted for the Druze. As she dove for additional cover bullets flew past her towards the Druze ambusher. Her sensors picked up Aveto providing covering fire. At this range there was no way the Varangians shots would land, and Arcee saw the Aveto fall as they got to cover. Luckily in the chaos her Oko’s operator had been able to maneuver the remote to maintain it’s net while being safe from enemy counterattack.

Just as Arcee finally felt they were safe bullets rained down into them from their left. Just as their systems turned off they picked up the origin, the enemy digger was raining bullets down from the building, apparently unaware that Agt Sal Din was hiding nearby.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2.2 – Neutralize and retrieve

Agt Sal Din, emerging from camo made quick work of the wounded digger, celeberating their victory against Arcee. With the path clear the Oko dashed around the truck, crawling around its cab, preparing to move towards the captured beacon. Suddenly alerts sounded as its sensors picked up a shimmer of movement, as the ninja revealed itself from where it was hiding. On instinct the operator unloaded a full burst towards the shimmer as the ninja levelled it’s smg at the bot. But the enemy was too slow, and the Oko’s shots landed, the ninja now fully visible as the enemy’s blood stained its thermooptic camouflage.

With the enemy left flank largely eliminated it was now time to press the advantage. Zephyr swung around the corner unloading everything into the enemy Tanko. As the Zeta’s shots landed as they impacted on the Tanko, Chromia and Boltflash advanced in the cover of the buildings. Pressing their speed the two bots quickly closed the distance, dodging the enemy Koala that attempted to stop them. As they made final approach, Chromia ordered Boltflash to head straight into the heart of the enemy as Chromia retrieved the captured beacon. Firing as they went Chromia knocked out the enemy sniper, as Boltflash fired its heavy riotstopper, imprisoning the now unconscious brawler and a supporting keisotsu. Pulling back with the retrieved beacon Chromia and Boltflash took cover behind a nearby car.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3.1 – Last ditch efforts

The tide had turned, Sora knew this, but she had to try and salvage something. The punishment for returning having failed was worse than anything that O-12 would do to her. She moved forward, firing at the enemy oko still stuck to the side of the truck. But before she could the bot darted on top of the truck.

Following her lead the remaining Keisotsu got up from where they were hiding on the roof, unloading on the Roadbot trying to make off with their beacon. As their bullets hit home, they each were sprayed by the nearby sidebot, freezing them in place. With a sudden crash Sora watched as a mad Yuan Yuan caming screaming out of the sky onto the other beacon, securing it and preparing to extract it, even as his comms were disabled by the enemy e/m mine planted nearby. Sora began to think that they had a chance, and then she noticed that her system had been tagged.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3.2 – Assets secured

The Oko’s pilot registered an explosion as the druze was vaporized by the guided missile fired by the squads Millicent. With the roadbots down the pilot knew it was up to them to grab the beacon from the enemy. Dashing across the field the remote grabbed the beacon and ran back to the safety of the rest of the O-12 forces, under the struggling eyes of the enemy Keisotsu.

As the Oko retrieved the second beacon Zephyr rounded the corner and unloaded into the Yuan Yuan on the near beacon, turning the pirate into a red mist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue: No rest for the wicked

Lt. Slater walked up and down the line of prisoners, ensuring they were adequately secured. The pirates had failed. Reports indicated that an Ikari shuttle had diverted, likely having learned of their ground team’s failure. All in all the mission had been an overwhelming success. All flight beacons were firmly in O-12 hands, they had suffered only one casualty (as the remotes could be repaired), and had captured a number of Ikari prisoners.

Despite their success Lt. Slater couldn’t celebrate. He knew that this wasn’t the end.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------