Shattergrounds

"We absolutely will make no move to protect Edda, unless all the nations of this human sphere sign our legal agreement to guarantee the smooth operation of all present and future Pan Oceanian sandcastle competitions!"

Silencing his feed of the diplomatic channels, Hsien Yue Fei had seen enough of the negotiations to know how this would end. Pan Oceania would huff, and puff, and try and extract ridiculous concessions before pushing the talks to collapse. While they did seem to have the material and troops to take on the Combined Army forces in Edda, it was obvious that, once again, they felt like they had to jealously horde their favourite territorial baubles and prioritize "revenge" on the rest of the human sphere instead of committing to the fight where they were obviously needed.

With the defence of the Master Clock at Huaqiao proceeding relatively smoothly, he had planned a covert operation to take him away from the drudgery of writing diplomatic missives. Several months ago a report attempting to track down a stolen shipment of Monthong Durian near Montalban had crossed his virtual desk. The Durian had never been found, a tragedy, but the report also noted that ROV submersibles had spotted what looked like a covert underwater laboratory in the area. It might be nothing, but the Nomads had been making a lot of noise about illegally held Orca pilots being held captive in Montalban. If the DIU could breach the laboratory and find evidence that supported their claims it would legitimize the Nomad assaults on Montalban in front of the O-12 [1].

A hasty plan had been made to neutralize the force of angry Helot troops that would likely be defending a facility like this. Celestial Zhou had requisitioned a small submarine, (the 萊夫·埃里克松) and jury rigged a boarding apparatus at the front of the sub containing harnesses for her squad of Kuang Shi. When they docked with the airlock of the lab, breaching charges would blow, the harnesses would unlock and the Kuang Shi squad's conditioning would trigger a surge into the facility. Their chain rifles could knock out enemy guards no matter how quickly they could fire back. Other team members could deploy more cautiously with their their rebreathers and transfer research materials to the teams pangguling remotes. Last but not least, they'd brought a small WarCor remote along to get pictures of anything they couldn't take away with them.

As the sub prepared to dock with the lab though, a starboard proximity alarm triggered. Checking the viewport, Yue Fei saw the small eyes of a large Walrus, which was lazily hanging in the water and peering back in at him. At least it was a normal size, and nothing like the beast they'd encountered back in New Hypatia. Judging by his experience normal marine life shouldn't be a problem, so he gave the signal to start the boarding operation.

[1] Though, it had to be argued that the O-12 itself held little legitimacy, given the events unfolding in Edda and the wheeling and dealing they were doing with the Combined Army to try and retain a shred of relevance.

The breaching charge blew and the Kuang Shi, somewhat accustomed to straining at their harnesses, suddenly found themselves free to run forward. They shot forwards into the lab as fast as they could, until a Morlock dodged out in front of them, threatening them with his own chain rifle.

[Yu Jing turn 1 had killed 3 Bakunin models, though amazingly the invincible moderator also appeared to be the Nomads lieutenant. The remainder of the Kuang Shi Link and Hsien Yue Fei set up to cover the Panic Room at the center of the marine complex, with one Pangguling adding combi rifle AROs. Something large swims past outside the sealab and demolishes one of the Pangguling and the Warcor robot.]

A second Riot Grrl with a spitfire moves into the same spot and kills one of the Kuang Shi, taking a wound from the other one.

[Bakunin turn 1 didn't go well, dropping a repeater and only killing one Kuang Shi in exchange for two, much more expensive models.]

[Turn passes back to Bakunin, who only have a couple of orders to spend. They make good use of them, with Uhahu putting up White Noise and wounding Yue Fei, who fails guts out of her line of fire. Uhahu can't quite dodge to the central room, even with O-12's Prestige]

[Well, that was an unexpected end to Bakunin turn 2... Hsien Yue Fei, hero of Durgama and leader of the Yu Jing crisis committee, dropped by a lucky potshot from a BS 10 Moderator. He was in cover, shooting back two shots on 17s, took one critical hit and failed two armor saves at damage 6! A reminder anything can and will die in Infinity!]

[Despite Loss of Lieutenant for Yu Jing, the game ends with no models remaining for Bakunin in turn 3. What a bloodbath.]