31st May 2084, 11.05PMThe dropship arrives just as the interceptors need to head home, low on fuel. I really hope this large craft has no aerial picket or the dropship could be in trouble on any return journey.
Coming in low and fast, Tiruin spots aliens on the move near a number of docked barges. In the low and gloomy light 4 aliens can be seen – one on each barge. One Taman, one Hovernet, and two new creatures – some kind of mechanical spider.
Based on the size of the alien craft detected, there is o doubt that there are more aliens out there as of yet unseen. Tiruin swoops in low and the squad disembark before Tiruin dusts off ready to hide from any enemy ships in the area. Unfortunately there is little in the way of cover, so the squad form up behind a cluster of small buildings before beginning the advance.
It appears the enemy anticipated this move – suddenly we are flanked on both sides by a Hovernet and 2 Taman soldiers. Accurate fire from their plasma weapons wounds SSG (light leg wound) and Scriver (moderate torso wound). Both will need to move away from combat to receive first aid.
Scriver enacts some vengeance on one of the Taman soldiers before heading to a nearby building to await first aid.
SSG misses the second Taman before heading to the shack with Scriver. The squad appears to have lost sight of the flanking Hovernet and those robot spiders.
Shadenight spots the Hovernet hiding in one of the barges, and deftly sends a round through the window and the robots plating, which is left smouldering on the deck of the barge.
With no other viable targets, the squad assumes cover positions along the line of low buildings.
Before he can reach the safety of the shed, Scriver takes another glancing hit from a plasma round – he is now bleeding badly from his arms and torso. He breaks off from crawling to the shed, and instead drags his sorry ass to where Bruce is taking cover. Bruce attempts to administer some emergency aid, but he is bleeding very badly and I am not sure he will make it...
Shadenight pops out of cover like some kind of ninja, dropping a Taman who seemed intent on walking across our lines. He is quickly earning a reputation as an ice cold death machine.
A large group of civilians comes sprinting towards the right hand end of our line – something seems to have them spooked. None of the squad speak Nigerian, so no sense can be made of the frantic yelling. Bruce yells an obscenity at them as he continues to try and stop blood leaking out of Scriver’s torso – his med kit is rapidly running out of bio foam to plug the wound.
With no incoming fire, the squad emerge from cover and advance on the barges. Cognitive dissonance spots a Taman taking cover in a nearby cluster of shipping crates...
.... and drops a grenade at its feet which stun it but do not kill it. It would appear that the aliens are regrouping on the far barges – along with the wounded Taman we can count 3 spiders and another Hovernet. As the smoke from Cognitive Dissonance’s grenade clears, the wounded Taman takes 2 stumbling steps forward and collapses, blood pooling on the floor around it.
Bruce has done all he can for Scriver – Scriver crawls into the shed to take some cover and passes out from all the pain killers in his system. Let’s hope he can hold on until we can get him back to base. Bruce switches his attention to dressing SSG’s leg wounds.
Meanwhile, Shadenight spots a spider making an advance on our lines. He guides Krevsin in dropping a grenade right on it, and it blows apart into shards of sharp metal.
The advance is slow, but efficient. We are dispatching enemies and nobody is shooting back – they can’t hit what they can’t see.
Scrub that – the Hovernet decides to make an aggressive move, firing a large plasma round at where Krevsin and Luke are covering behind a mooring point. The round hits Luke in the lower leg, making a mess of below his knee. Bruce instructs SSG to go keep an eye on the unconscious Scriver and scurries over to do what he can – Luke will need a replacement foot by the looks of it. Krevsin returns fire, and the disc erupts in flame. We might have 3 of the squad out of action and Bruce busy tending to them, but Krevsin’s accurate fire has allowed Cognitive Dissonance and Honker Bonker to close in on the barges...
Krevsin lands his third kill of the mission exploding one of the spiders sneaking up on his position.
Honker Bonker and Cognitive dissonance appear to have surrounded the last alien on a barge with their advance...
Yelling some kind of mad Russian rant, Honker Bonker finally gets to use his flamethrower in toasting the last spider.
The port is littered with bits of destroyed robot alien. We saved 8 civilians, and suffered 3 wounded, 2 of them serious. One of the civilians speaks broken English, and manages to explain to Bruce that the robot spiders had been eating dockworkers prior to our arrival – hence why they ran at us shit scared. They appear to have no ranged weapons, which is what made this mission so easy, and the only reason half the squad aren’t coming back in body bags – over half the enemy had no ability to hurt us from distance, which Krevsin really took advantage of. What is left of the robot spiders is bundled up to be given to Dr Branth to analyse. The quite frankly massive UFO found outside the dock compound is being transported by train to our storage yard – how we can keep it hidden as it heads the long way around Africa I have no idea. Why the aliens elected to leave the vicinity of thier craft and abandon it is a mystery - could this craft, which is massive on the scale of human craft, be an expendible unit to them? Why are they so obsessed with what humanity gets up to at docks and harbours? Are they looking for something?
Scriver has been promoted to Lance Corporal as a result of his gallantry in dispatching the Taman despite his wounds. Krevsin has also been promoted to Lance Corporal, as if I do not promote him I worry he may blow me up – he seems to be blowing everything else up with ease.
While the dropship makes its way back to base our monthly funding clears – the amount we clear is down another 50% from 400,000 to 200,000 – the antimatter storage unit is eating into our budget already.
Pilots:
Pilot Jesse “Spaghetti-7” James – 5 mission, 3 kills.
Pilot Rehyaaz “Haspen” de jesus – 5 mission, 3 kill
Pilot “Tiruin” Kloot – 5 missions, 2 kills
Soldiers:
Rifleman Bruce “Dsarker” Bonzer – 5 mission, 1 kill
Lance-Corporal “Shadenight” Schwartz – 5 mission, 6 kills
Lance-Corporal “Krevsin” Timofeev – 4 missions, 4 kill
Rifleman “Cognitive Dissonance” Schultze – 2 missions, 1 kill
Rifleman “Honker Bonker” Assar (Kicior) - 5 missions, 1 kill
Rifleman “Euchre Jack” Cardoso – 1 missions, 1 kill
Lance-Corporal “MaxClone Alpha” – 3 missions, 3 kills: Extreme torso burns
Rifleman “SSG” Bradford – 5 mission, 1 kill: Light leg wound.
Rifleman “Luke” Mubarack – 2 mission, 1 kill: Having robotic prosthetic foot attached.
Lance-Corporal “Scriver” Bouzid – 4 mission, 3 kills: Extensive torso burns, moderate leg wounds, severe blood loss.
Rifleman “Lukeinator” Herring – Gunned down from point blank by a dual plasma pistol wielding Taman at a docks in Egypt. 1 mission, no kills.