Shattergrounds

OOC: My good budy George, AKA WarpChargedGaming came over to my place for a game of infinity to really christen the new gaming table I put together. He brought his Yu Jing, and we had a wild and fun time playing the new Resiliency Operations and Reinforcements together. I just want to thank him again for making the trip down further south of the city, and look forward to the kids being old enough for me to get out there again!

IC: Operation Nujooma ended with mixed results. The primary objective of removing Combined Army influence from the Rhodan Spaceport failed, as there were simply too many Combined Army forces to deal with. The Sword of Allah made a strong showing but not enough. The secondary objective was to pull focus of the EI High Command away from Lorena, which was successful. Initial analysis shows that it stopped Combined Army operations in the area completely allowing ALEPH to increase their security.

Now Task Force 27 was standing in a MOUT training facility next to a Yu Jing force. The Joint Command of the Quantum Containment Coalition ordered various exercises between their Coalition forces to strengthen international operations in the area. Both forces were relaxing, some small conversations taking place. Maih was taking a head count when a Daoying operative walked over, taking her hand and shaking it gently. Maih looked her over as she returned the hand shake, the Yu Jing woman had her helmet tucked under her arm, and she was about the same size as Maih. Her black hair was cut short, and she had a sharp angular face with a smile on it.

“Ni hao, Shàoxiào Aafah. It is good to meet you.” The woman spoke softly, in a friendly manner.

“As-salam. Shàoxiào Daiyu, I assume?”

“Shì de.” The Yu Jingese woman responded, nodding. “I am happy to have this chance, I wanted to thank you. Your ship, the adh-Dhib, rescued my brother from the wreck of the Dahlian at the Battle of the Faraway Jumpgate. The relief that my family and I had, hearing of his survival was great. If you ever find yourself on Shentang, please visit my parents' home. I will send you the address information. They wish to thank you in person more traditionally. You also rescued another family's daughter in the same neighborhood, so I will send their contact information as well.”

“Mashallah! Of course!” Maih exclaims in surprise, smiling and placing a hand on the Yu Jing woman's shoulder, her geist was already pulling up into her vision the profile of her brother to add context for her, “What a small world we live in. We regret that we could not have saved more, but I am happy to know at least some good came of it now.”

Nodding, the woman came up next to Maih and showed her a datapad, and the composition of their forces, along with a map of the training facility. As befits a hyper power it was very large and full of training tools and devices. The facility lay outside of the city of Huaqiao, but close enough to see the city's skyline over the training structures. Both forces had even numbers along with a reinforcement contingent to simulate asymmetric objective operations. Daiyu was in charge of the Yu Jing contingent, while Maih was in charge of the Haqqislam contingent.

“We are scheduled for Facility 3 today. You can see it here on the map.” Daiyu said, pointing to a section of the facility. Maihs commlog was already downloading the available map of Facility 3, and pinpointing objects within the field. Daiyu continued, “We have a number of volunteer civilians to act as high value targets, and some of them are to secretly record and grade the operation. Your High Command will send you your training objectives separate from mine. Any questions?”

Maih shook her head.

“Very good. Let’s get the troops ready then!”

The two walked over to the larger group of Yu jing and Haqqislam soldiers, and Daiyu spoke up. A surprisingly clear and loud voice rang over the training grounds from her, “Yu Jing Concilium Prima High Command would like to thank our Haqqislamite partners for joining us in these joint exercises, and we hope that in doing so we will learn to work together more efficiently! All weapons have been issued sim rounds for use in these exercises. If the system declares you unconscious, please make an effort to act wounded or downed to help increase the exercises immersion. If the system declares you dead, please act dead. If you feel your safety is at risk though in the area you are in, you are permitted to exit the training field in the most expeditious way you can. Good luck and may we take this win for the Emperor!”

Maih then stepped forward, “These training exercises will be different for both sides. Haqqislam High Command and Yu Jing High Command hope to gain beneficial experience in dynamic objectives across an urban area. Please know, while these sim rounds are not designed to kill, they are still flying objects. Ensure you have eye protection on before the siren sounds for the scenario start. You will be briefed at the deployment area of each force, and inshallah, we will win this.”

Maih stepped back and gave a wink to the chuckling Daoying.

“Dismissed!” Both women yelled.

Task Force 27 marched through the facility to their designated training area where they grouped up and reviewed their objectives. They were fairly simple objectives, Maih had to have as many surviving troops at the end of the battle as possible, destroy a couple designated beacons, and tag a couple of HVT’s. The last objective was probably the hardest, she had to designate the Yu Jing NCO, Krit Kokram who was flagged on the Yu Jing side.

“Asil, you will be taking the lead, I want you practicing the leadership skills and target priority we have been discussing. You will be going to the Military Academy of Al-Khaafdif soon, and I want to make sure you are prepared.”

Asil Tilki, who was walking next to Maih, nodded, “Aye Ra’id, I will make sure to bring us the win.”

“Oi g’day luv!” The voice of Linda Groening, the Beasthunter, made Maih raise an eyebrow.

“What are you doing here? Your not a part of the RTF.”

“Good deduction there Sherlock! No but high command paid good coin to throw me into the machine and see if I gunk up the works. How do you do working with an independent, irregular, or some such.”

“Great, well go keep Nema-3 company and watch her back.”

“Nema-3? Whose that?” Linda asked looking around.

The sunduqbut suddenly stomped up behind her, and a clear voice of a young woman emanated from it, “I am Nema-3. I am here to assist in stopping the enemy from continuing their training.”

“No, no Nema. you are here to help further develop your pseudo-ai in friend and foe recognition, which you seem to have a problem with.” Maih responded quickly.

As they got to the training field, they were stunned to find jungle growth over the center of the field, and the Shimmering Sky nanobots had plunged the whole area into a simulation of night time. Reviewing the jungle growth, it was determined that it was likely due to a Quantum Anomaly Zone that had come and gone. It had grown up and around the buildings, turning the flat roads into marsh, and lush green trees and leaves inside the buildings. A quick check of the area confirmed it was safe, so the training continued.

Yu Jing:
The Yu Jing forces took the initiative as the form of a Hac Tao suddenly appeared from thin air, moving forward to take a better shooting position and immediately engaged Haley, the Zhayedan Missile Launcher. Caught completely unawares, the sim rounds slammed into her shoulder and chest.

“Haqqislam Soldier hit! Armor failed! Haley Tiffah is dead!” The announcement rang over the commlog, followed by Haley cursing as she flopped to the ground, playing dead.

“How was Haely not paying attention! She’s ALWAYS paying attention!” Came a snide remark from the Ghulam Doctor, Talibah.

“Keep it professional, trolling and ribbing can wait for the AAR.” Maih responded, hearing Fahim chuckle near her.

The Hac Tao reviewed his area of sight and finding no targets, reviewed the battlefield situation. There at the end of an alley, he saw Maih prone and leaning out from some cover, keeping her gun down an alley of approach. The dark colored armor moved quickly along the rooftop, and up onto a second floor roof, where his armor's sensor suite picked out Maih, and Maihs multispectral visors saw the Hac Tao. As the heavy infantry raised its HMG to fire, movement in the corner of his vision brought his sight to the street, where a cargo box suddenly began to unfold, quickly, the whirring of servos and motors announcing the ambush of the Sunduqbut. Nema-3’s viral rifle swung around, and began firing before the remote was even fully deployed.

“That’s enough sneaking invisi-boy.” Nema-3’s speakers yelled down the street.

Rounds streaked towards the Hac Tao hitting him once, while Maih fired as well, the range beyond her optimum. Her rounds went wide as the Hac Tao moved its fire onto the Sunduqbut. The heavy viral rounds ripped into it but its armor stood firm, only taking minor damage. Stepping back from the edge, the Yu Jing special operations soldier sent additional rounds into the remote, two of the rounds finding purchase and knocking Nema-3 out of commission.

“Sunduqbut, designation Nema-3, hit and damaged! Out of action until repair!” The commlog yelled the announcement to everyone.

With the path open, Krit Kokram and a Sujiann began moving forward. The Sujiann moved quickly in its mobility form, dashing across the main street and heading down an alley. Mau, the genetically modified large sabertooth cat saw the machine running towards it. Dodging forward, the Sujiann rounded the corner, and came face to face with Maih. Maih tried to roll out of line of sight, but was unable to dodge all the shots from the mecha-cats heavy shotgun, and one round slammed into her head.

“Maih Aafah hit! Armor failed! Trooper injured, requires medical attention!” The voice of the announcer roared again to the field.

Groaning and rubbing the growing goose egg on her head, Maih lay on the ground, as Fahim drew his scimitar, and dodged around the corner, right onto the Su Jiann. The remote tried to disengage but the Khawarij was too large and quick. That is when the Hac Tao stood to send rounds down into the fight, one hit Fahim square in the chest, the sim round striking true. Three more hit the Su Jian that also struck true.

“Fahim Yachel hit! Armor failed! Trooper injured, requires medical attention!”

“Su Jiann Remote Response Unit hit! Armor failed! Trooper injured, still functioning!”

Fahim sheathed his scimitar and sat against the wall of the alley.

Haqqislam:
The sound of the Malek Force Roc gunship roared overhead suddenly as the Ghulam communications specialist radioed in for reinforcements. The Hakim, Gamal El-Badawi, and the Burtuk Nailah El-Fadel fast roped from the hovering aircraft. From a side panel, Ein-213, the Rafiq fell to the ground, landing with a thud and unfolding from its cradle, while on a rooftop next to the Roc, the large form of the Azrail, Barika Nassar, landed with a thud, the floor beneath buckling slightly under the heavy, armored form. Gamal landed behind the Su Jiann and quickly opened up with his SMG at point blank range, getting several hits, but none breaking through the armor. Something akin to a mechanical growl emanated from it angrily as it turned to stare directly at the Hakim. Suddenly from the other side of the Yu jing remote, Mau came barreling down the alleyway, and tackled the mechanical cat. Wasting no time, Gamel shouldered his SMG again and let loose, putting down the Su Jiann, but also hitting Mau.

“Su Jiann Remote Response Unit hit! Armor failed! Trooper non-functioning!”

“Beast, designation Mau hit! Armor failed! Beast is designated dead!”

Barika, the Azrail, then turned to face the prone Hac Tao on the rooftop across the street from her. Raising her modified Spitfire, sim rounds came streaming across the street. Normally armor piercing, thermite rounds would be impacting the Yu Jing soldier, but luckily for him, the sim rounds just painted his armor, as the Azrail went prone to the roof.

“Hac Tao hit! Armor failed! Trooper injured, requires medical attention!”

Gamal moved quickly to Fahim and registered his return to combat, followed quickly by Palavi getting Maih back into the fight.

“Troopers Maih and Fahim registered as no longer injured!”

The Burtuk Nailah then began moving quickly to Nema-3, to get the remote back up. The bulky figure moved swiftly and worked quickly, registering the Sunduqbut as operational again. Standing up and taking her position again, Nema-3 mused, “I don’t like….losing.”

Yu Jing:
The roar of the Yu Jing gunship announced the arrival of their own reinforcements as a Son Bae, two Wei Bings, a Rui Shi, and Chief Jeong descended to the middle of the field, around three objective markers. The Son bae immediately moved to engage the Burtuk, Nailah who immediately flicked the button for her underslung e/marat and bathed the remote in e/m waves, as two simrounds slammed into her.

“Trooper Nailah hit! Armor partial! Trooper wounded but still fighting!”

Nailah then fell flat to the ground behind a barrier to get out of line of sight. At the commotion in the street, Barika stood up, moved to the edge of the roof, seeing the Yu Jing reinforcements below. Pulling her heavy pistol, she engaged Chief Jeong as the engineer fell back to cover, but the sim round hit the street, missing. Jeongs sim rounds impacted the Azrails armor, with heavy thuds.

“Trooper Barika hit! Armor is partially effective! Trooper wounded but still fighting!”

Smoke appeared on the far side of the field, as the Rui Shi moved quickly into it. Its multispectral visor gives sight through the obscuring mist at the Azrail. A spray of simrounds impacted on the tower Barika stood, one hitting her armor, the system announcing the armor holding its integrity. The Rui Shi moved again, getting closer within the smoke, and released another roar of fire. More of these rounds hit true.

“Trooper Barika hit! Armor failed! Trooper removed from the fight!”

Grumbling about sneaky tricks, Barika locked her suit in place and opened it up, hoping out of it to watch the rest of the fight from the balcony. She gave a quick thumbs up and stuck her tongue out to the “dead” Hac Tao sitting on the edge of the tower across from her. He had removed his helmet while watching the action, and gave a chuckle, shaking his head. At the far end of the field, the Rui Shi was moving forwards, trying to catch Nema-3, the sunduqbut, out of effective range. Nema-3 immediately sent precise, and accurate fire, sim rounds painting a line across the armored chassis of the remote.

“Remote Rui Shi hit! Armor failed! Remote out of commission!”

Just then the Son Bae rounded the front of the bus, having snuck up during the firefight, and Nema-3 immediately opened fire, rounds slamming into the Yu Jing remote and knocking it out of commission. Chief Jeong leapt to her job quickly, moving to repair the E/M damage to the Weibing and got it back into commission before moving to the side of the bus.

“Remote Son Bae hit! Armor failed! Remote out of commission!”

“Stop resisting!” Nema-3 exclaimed.

“Remote Weibing repaired!”

The Weibing immediately began skittering around the bus to move behind the Sunduqbut. The rem was quick, sprinting from behind the bus next to Nema-3, and sliding behind the Haqqislamite remote to send rounds into its back. Nema-3 twisted around quickly though, its viral rifle sending a stream of sim rounds into the remote, leaving it plastered with paint and dents.

“Remote Wei Bing hit! Armor failed! Remote destroyed!”

“I believe the human term is, WOMP WOMP.” Nema-3 chortled.

“Nema! Do not antagonize our hosts!” Maih yelled over the commlog.

“Then our hosts should be better at not dying, Ra’id.” Nema-3 said plainly, twisting back into her position, just as a stream of Mk12 rounds hit her, from the recently repaired Son Bae.

“Remote Son Bae repaired!”

“Nema-3 hit! Armor held! Remote undamaged!”

The Son Bae fired again, pulling back behind the bus as Nema-3 responded quickly. Rounds flew between the two remotes, but the rounds simply painted the side of the bus and barricades. At last a Weibing ran out to try and push the implacable Haqqislam remote. The gamble paid off as at last a hit registered on Nema-3, and positioned the Weibing in a better space to control the area.

“Nema-3 hit! Armor held! Remote undamaged!”

Haqqislam:
Sekhmet revved her motorcycle, and zoomed up the side of a building to see the street. Jeong and Weibing were sitting in. Her chain rifles roared, as the Weibings gun retorted and Jeong dodged back behind the bus. The round slammed into her chest but the armor held, while the Chain Rifles took out the Weibing.

Remote Weibing hit! Armor failure! Remote incapacitated!”

The Burtuk, Nailah, stood up and moved along the back of the bus in the middle of the street. Raising her SMG, she moved quickly up to the corner and released a burst down the street towards one of the Weibings, the sim rounds hitting its armor but not registering a fatal hit. She knew that Chief Jeong was just up the bus though. The Yu Jing engineer would make all their efforts ineffective if she was able to keep fighting. Making the decision, Nailah ran up along the bus, a round from the Weibing flying wide as she engaged Jeong, but the Yu Jing soldier was waiting for her, the combi rifle leveled. A quick shot and a splatter on the Burtuks breastplate registered.

“Trooper Nailah hit! Armor failure! Trooper is dead!”

“Linda, we’re looking at you to take the right flank, get those objectives done.” Asils voice came over the Commlog.

“Righto!” Linda responded, and began moving quickly along the the building on the right flank of the field, and with a leap, landed softly on the roof.

She moved quickly, to the edge, where a Kuang shi looked up, waiting to see if the shadow leaping through the air would attack it, or not. The beast hunter simply leapt straight over the penal trooper, landing with a roll and continuing to run to a series of add boards. Taking cover, she took out her target designator, and peaked back out. The Kuang shi was still trying to find her, but his back was turned. The device pinged, and one of the civilians grouped up by the trooper was designated. Slipping the designator away, she drew her large, two handed katana, and moved behind the beacon console designated for Yu Jing.

Linda took a large swing and the anti-material blade landed squarely on the console, destroying it. Pulling the designator back out, she moved along the billboards again to gain sight on the civilians. She tried several times to get one designated but they were too busy having a break dance fight in the street, and she kept missing. After cursing multiple times, she finally managed to designate another civilian target. To do this though, she got hit by a spray of sim rounds from a Kuang shi chain rifle.

“Trooper Linda hit! Armor failure! Trooper is incapacitated and requires medical attention!”

“Ein will now help!” The Rafiq with a self evolved pseudo-ai spoke in the comlink.

The Rafiq ran along the side of a two story structure, and down an alley way towards the center of the field, and Chief Jeongs group of remotes. The Rafiq was over-exuberant though and didn't wait for the target to be dialed in. The Weibing in the center was faster, sending a round down and hitting the remote square in an optic.

“Remote Rafiq hit! Armor failure! Remote incapacitated!”

“Oops.” Chimed the rafiq, sadly.

Yu Jing:
The Kuang Shi suddenly activated and jumped into action, running for the middle. As one came running around a building on the right, Nema-3’s viral rifle responded, removing the threat. Another Kuang shi began running down the alley that Fahim, Maih, Palavi, and Gamal were stationed in. The crazed penal trooper rounded the corner, its chain rifle spitting. Gamal realized the situation immediately, and positioned himself to take most of the blow, allowing some area for his other three comrades to dodge out of the way. The Hakims SMG sprayed sim rounds down the front of the penal soldier's chest, knocking him out, but his own armor also failed.

“Trooper Kuang Shi hit! Armor failure! Trooper is dead!”

“Trooper Gamal hit! Armor failure! Trooper is incapacitated!”

Looking at the Kuang Shi, Gamal shook his head, feeling sorry for the human subjected to such a treatment. While Yu Jing supported them greatly in the QCC, there were some things the hyper power did that was unusually abhorrent. Perhaps this coalition could be a stepping stone in bringing them closer to the Search for Knowledge?

Krit Kokram then took the initiative running forward across the street. Hitting the side of a large van, he raised his rifle, and peaked the corner, his weapon raised. Catching sight of Sekhmet, he let loose with a short burst of fire. One round struck home.

“Trooper Sekhmet hit! Armor failure! Trooper is inc-”

“Shut it you computer loser!” Sekhmet yelled.

Three more rounds suddenly struck her again from Krit.

“Trooper Sekhmet is hit! Armor failure! Trooper is dead!”

“Gah!” The woman yelled, moving her motorcycle off of the field.

“Troopers are reminded to follow the rules of the training operation!”

The rest of the Yu Jing forces arrayed themselves around the middle, controlling the key objectives.

Haqqislam:
Maih motioned to Fahim and Palavi to move forward. The group began moving swiftly up the alley, to where Gamal was sat against a wall. Fahim jumped up onto the building next to him, his augmented musculature taking him up and over the parapet with a single bound. Palavi took a moment to render first aid, and registered Gamal as functional again.

“Trooper Gamal has been healed!”

Fahim then began advancing along the roof top, raising his spit fire as he got sight of the Son Bae. His gun roared as a stream of rounds peppered the remotes armor, knocking it out of commission, and he quickly changed his focus to the Rui Shi, and another stream of rounds painted the armor of that remote as well.

“Remote Son Bae hit! Armor failure! Remote is incapacitated!”

“Remote Rui Shi hit! Armor failure! Remote is incapacitated!”

Maih quickly took the opportunity to run down the alley leading to the center of the field when her commlog pinged that Krit Kokram was in her immediate vicinity. Without hesitation, she quickly ran the scanning software on his geist. She received a ping back that it was successful. As they were about to break cover to engage the remaining Yu Jing forces, a horn blasted across the training facility, and the night sky began breaking apart into sunlight. The training exercise was finished.

“Time limit reached! Yu Jing Objective score of 5! Haqqislam Objective Score of 8! Haqqislam RTF Task Force 27 is victorious!”