Operation Neon Tiger - episode 08

Intro

- Commander Fashas'di, may I show you something?
The Casta Diva was preparing to leave the planet, enjoying the last rays of Varuna's sun on its hull before facing the nameless cold of interstellar void. The voice of Mentor Quish Lo'rr had a hint of apprenshion and curiosity; he opened up a holoscreen to show close up records of the artifact they had recovered on Hlökk Station. Nanobots swirled and curled under the watchful eyes of the two Shasvastii.

- Interesting. A minor signal, what is your opinion; Quish Lo'rr?

Over time, Fashas'di had bonded with his crew. They executed his orders fast and efficientely. He trusted the Mentor and, he hoped, the feeling was mutual.

-It could be eggs, embryios, maybe a wounded creature. We still don't know much about the Neon Tiger. Much are deductions based on the Steindrage, a creature we believe shares common ancestors with it. The signal is low and we don't know as much as we would like about these artifacts either: the source could also be shielded.

Fashas'di nodded, anxious.

- What about its whereabouts? Have you triangulated this new position?

Quish opened a new screen, showing an imposing construction towering above a marine harbour.

- Fortress-monastery of Zamek. A military Order complex here on Varuna. Our intelligence suggests it is also used as a detention facility for our comrades captured in Cameliard; an high security location.

Being a commander was no easy task. Fashas'di felt this was what made him bond with the crew: it wasn't something he did, but something they understood. Regardless of his acquaintances and his reccomendations, he was still the one taking the shots for the glory or the disgrace of Shasvastii. There was no shortcut that would have helped him in making the right choice: it was up to him. Mentor Quish Lo'rr remained silent, waiting for Fashas'di orders.

- Transfer the main location coordinates to our closest cruiser, they will find the Neon Tiger. We'll storm Zamek with a biotech bomb and infiltrate.

 Mission and Lists

300 points - Painc Room ITS Season 13 Supplement

🐜 Shasvastii Expeditionary Force VS ✠ Military Orders

🐜 Shasvastii Classified Objective: Extreme Prejudice
✠ Military Orders Classified Objective: Data Scan

Military Orders wins the initiative roll and chooses deployment, going second. Shasvastii choose to go first.

*MO Fireteams

     - Core fireteam: Brother Konstantinos, Teutonic Knight (NCO), Teutonic Knight (Liutenant);

     - Haris fireteam: De Fersen, Teutonic Knight, Black Friar FTO.

*Shas Fireteams:

- Core Fireteam: Sheskiin (Lieutenant), Nox (hacker), Nox.

 

Deployment

🐜 Shasvastii deployment

Gwailo on the far left, near the antenna. Caliban with Chain of Command passes the confused deployment roll and goes forward, in the center, near the panic room gate. Caliban engineer fails the roll and is deployed out of camo state on the center-left. The Core fireteam with Sheskiin and two Nox goes in the center. Jathy is deployed on the right while the spitfire Noctifer is deployed on the archway on the center right. A command token is spent to keeep two troopers in reserve.

✠ Military Orders deployment

Fugazi and Black Friar behind the center-left building. On its roof, De Fersen and the Tech-Bee, prone. Going right, a Teutonic knight with TinBot (Haris linked with De Fersen and the Friar) and the Escort Sergeant are in total cover behind a console. Behind the central building are Palbot, Brother Konstantinos and the Teutonic knight Lieutenant. Behind the center-right building goes the Auxbot while another Teutonic knight NCO (Core linked with Konstantinos and the other Teutonic) is on its roof, prone. On the stairs on the right goes a prone Curator. On the right side of the deplyment zone, outside the picture, lays the Mulebot behind a building.

📍Final deployment

The Speculo killer tries to infiltrate but fails, joining the Jayth on the right flank. A Noctifer missile launcher goes on the center-left building, hoping to have guessed right the Tikbalang position which, of course, is positioned on the left side of PanO deployment, in cover.

🐜 TURN 1 - Shasvastii

The fireteam comes forward leaving the Nox outside the room, guarding its back gate while Sheskiin goes inside, controlling it. The Gwailo advances on the left, covering a fire lane crossing the front and left gate in suppressive fire state. The Jayth runs on the right flank to claim an advanced poisition and dropping a mine unnoticed. Everyone else joins the advance with the help of two coordinated orders. Lastly, the Speculo killer goes back to impersonator state.

✠ TURN 1 - Military Orders

The two fireteams advance. The one on the right comes forward for the Teutonic knight NCO to see the Jayth. A lucky lob from the alien lands an E/M greanade on the knight, shutting down his power armor and isolating brother Konstantinos as well. The Auxbot takes the bull by its horns and roasts both Jayth and its mine with a blast of its heavy flamethrower. The Curator engineer advances prone on the stairs but the Noctifer with missile launcher is ready and obliterates her. The Auxobt is on a rampage and reaches the gate, resisting all fire from Gwailo and burning Sheskiin twice as she fails to dodge, dying without shooting a round (sic).

The Tikbalang comes forward and face the Gwailo in suppressive fire state, but suffers a wound. 
De Fersen reaches the room and claims it, shooting back the Gwailo and suffering one wound.
Lastly, the lieutenant order is spent on the NCO knight to remove his negative states, but the -12 malus requires the roll of a 1 which won't show up.

TURN 1 - Score

Military Orders: 2, Shasvastii: 0

🐜 TURN 2 - Shasvastii

The CoC Caliban is appointed as new lieutenant. The Gwailo advances into the room shooting everyone, proving to be both a solid active and reactive piece. The Auxbot dies with De Fersen and the Tikbalang take another wound. The Gwailo tries again, but suffers a wound from the Tikbalang. The CoC Caliban enters the room unnoticed and goes prone on the balcony. Both Caliban engineer and Noctifer advance, using the last coordinated order to go in camouflaged state and prepare to jump into battle for the final round.

✠ TURN 2 - Military Orders

First order is spent to move the Mulebot in the safe zone outside the incoming plague. The thech-bee advances on the rigth side and takes partial cover, preparing to catch someone in ARO with her flash pulse. The Tikbalang advances, removing the Gwailo. Brother Konstantinos reaches the room without facing resistence and the Escort Sergeant joins him, while the Black Friar stays out of the room with a good line of fire inside it. The stronghold is reinforced by putting both Konstantinos and the Tikibalang in suppressive fire state looknig inside the room through the lower entrance. All attempts to reset the knight are futile. With no more orders left, the Fugazi face the upcoming biotechvore plague failing the BTS roll and thus going unconscious.

TURN 2 - Score

Military Orders: 4, Shasvastii: 0

🐜 TURN 3 - Shasvastii

The Tech-Bee is wiped out by the oddly deployed spitfire Noctifer. The Speculo killer gets into the room. Discover rolls are low and the alien reaches the Tikibalang. The fight is unbalanced and the alien goes to null state, hoping for his regeneration roll but making Konstantinos loose his focus and dropping the suppressive fire state. His actions allow the Teutonic NCO to try another reset which succedes despite all odds! What a pivotal moment! The Noctifer ML puts the TAG in his scope and finally destroys it, but dies under fire by Konstantinos. The Caliban engineer storms the room and takes down the Black Friar and the Escort Sergeant with his submachine gun. The aliens are holding the room, will they succeed? The Speculo killer is back on his feet thanks to regeneration.

Meanwhile, the Noctifer with spitfire goes to dogged state and will eventually die because of the Biotechvore.

✠ TURN 3 - Military Orders

The lieutenant shoots the Speculo killer with his light shotgun, cancelling him from exsistence. The Tetuonic knight NCO goes to the right to shoot his four spitfire rounds against the Caliban engineer and the two Nox. The aliens try to dodge and return fire but they are all go down. With no orders left, the aliens are controlling the room with CoC Calibans, their last trooper.

TURN 3 - Score

Military Orders: 4, Shasvastii: 2

Victory points calulations are quickly made to unveil the outcome of the game...

Final Score: Military Orders win! 7 - 2

Debriefing

🐜 Shasvastii

What a memorable game! 

Unfortunately, I whiffed two crucial infiltration rolls that would have helped me saving orders and holding the room. My defeat was also due to the mispositioning of spitfire Noctifer: not only because the portion of table he covered was eventually irrelevant, but also because having two hidden deployed troopers above street level proved to be extremely order consuming. I could save the missile launcher, not both. The rest of the bunch shined as long as the dice smiled at me, blessing my game with some sweet crits. I realized I didn't have a plan for an ARO-less first turn so I invested resources in coordinated orders that weren't focused in anything specific and were ultimately wasted "doing something". Despite my MVP is clearly the AP spitfire Gwailo, I'd like to spend some words on the Jayth: my boy knows how to lob a granade.

✠ Military Orders

Definitely an unpredictable game.

Having to deal with an isolated and immobilized Teutonic knight, along with an isolated Konstantinos, forced me to optimize the use of regular orders on the rest of the pieces. Defersen largely underwhelmed, while the Escort sergeant and Kostantinos proved to be incredibly versatile. 

Tikbalang did not disappoint even though in this match he proved itself to be more able to take hits than to distribute them.

Crucial was the moment in the third round when the teutonic knight NCO managed to cancel the immobilized and isolated states and then get rid of three enemies with his spitfire. Although he actively participated in only one round of the match, he can be elected as MVP having helped to thin the opponent's victory points, thus granting the victory to MO.

I am increasingly convinced that three-member fireteams are better performers than 4/5 member links, especially with the recent changes introduced to the rules of fireteams.

Outro

Brother Hermann landed at Zamek at night. Despite his knight status and his rank, he had to wait for some time, contemplating pale stars reflected on the bay in front of the fortress. It was an unusual treatment, almost rude and inappropriate, that he read as a subterfuge to let him know about the existence of secrets he was only allowed to acknowledge and not to know.

He was finally allowed to enter the main hall and was welcomed by a tall man in clerical robes.

- In hoc signo vince.

Whispered brother Hermann, kneeling.

- Deus vult. 

Replied the man, blessing him.

- Rise up, brother Hermann. I am abbot Melican, our Grand Master Carmine Burana is sorry but can't welcome you. He's preparing an important trip to New Hypatia.

Another monastery charade: kind words to hide unpleasant truths. Hermann was a field knight and couldn't stand this palace farce, but knew how to play the game.

- Worry not, abbot. We are but humble servants of humanity. But please, brief me about yesterday's attack.

- The aliens attacked with a vicious biotechvore bomb but were ultimately defeated by their own weapon and repelled.

Brother Hermann was about to ask something, but the abbot anticipated him.

- There were no alien survivors. We have found and destroyed their ship, too.

The knight was expecting this kind of comment: Zamek was rumored to be some kind of disguised xenoprision. If the Shasvastii had the artifact with them, it was now locked up somewhere in the depths of the fortress.

- However, continued the abbot, we also have some useful information: the Casta Diva sent a encrypted message to an unidentified target, probably a Shasvastii repeater or a ship. I'll send you all the data, I'm sure you'll make good use of it.

- Sure thing abbot, thank you.

Replied Hermann with a smile, thinking that only one thing was truly sure: aliens and other uninvited visitors were not welcome at Zamek.

...

The Lead Dragon Lounge was rather empty that evening, but Brother Hermann did not mind at all. He was beginning to find its soft, muted ambience pleasant; something he would never have thought of as a frontline knight. In short, he liked the place, or maybe it was Irina's presence that made it so pleasant. He liked her straightforward attitude, the relentless determination carved in every word she choose. The contrast with the convoluted diplomacy on Zamek was striking. He regained control of his emotions, almost suppressing them, after a good sip of his drink.

Irina did not wait too long and appeared at his table a few minutes later, confirming the feelings he had been trying to set aside.

- I have something for you. I cannot tell you where it comes from, but I hope you can tell me where it may lead us.

Herman displayed what he had received from Abbot Melican, projecting the data onto his holoprojector.

Irina's face lit up with astonishment, and Hermann could not help but notice it.

- So, what about it?

- That this information normally comes at a price... 

Brother Hermann looked at Irina's robotic arm and she noticed it immediately. 

- I know what you're thinking, but I care about my arm. It reminds me of many things and to deprive myself of it would not be wise...Anyway, with the right equipment, which is mine, I will be able to tell you what it is and where it is.