Getting a Recon team ready in the Imperial Service is obviously way easier than in most other parts of the Yu Jing Service as 80% of its agents are specialists in one or several areas of expertise required for that sort of operation.

It thus only took mere minutes to get a small assortment of suited agents ready and within the area of operation, and as I stepped inside my Crane Agent armour I let my eyes glance over the agents that had so quickly answered my call for backup. Kanren Umibozu, a guy that basically seemed to never sleep and two Celestial Guards, including Shen Jing, were forming the Imperial Service core of the unit, together with a couple of Kuang Shi for the more dangerous areas of the Recon zone, and two Bounty Hunters for some plausible deniability when it came down to smashing things and possibly causing civilian casualties in the process.

As was his way Kanren Umibozu instantly advanced towards the centre of the Recon Area, securing possible advance routes for the rest of the team.

I took position on the left flank, forming a small team with the two Celestial Guards, and left the centre and right flank to the Bounty Hunters “Lotus Justice”, “Sucker Punch” and the Kuang Shis.

It wasn’t exactly the strongest attack formation, but this was just a Recon Mission to find the possible Caledonian hideout in the area. That damned Cameronian couldn’t have vanished into thin air after all.

First scans of the area had shown two suspicious consoles in the area that might lead to something, so our first priority would be to secure those if possible.

Just as we were about to start our sweep of the area, frantic shooting could be heard from the centre of the recon area.

Apparently Kanren Umibozu’s forward advance had lead him straight into an ambush laid by an enemy S.A.S, but as his laughing “Got you fucker!” proclaimed Umibozu had managed to take care of the S.A.S on his own by the time my own team had managed to advance to his position.

In the meantime the Kuang Shi stumbled forward all over the recon area in their Zombie like fashion, and both “Sucker Punch” and “Lotus Justice” took position to cover the right flanks from any possible flanking manoeuvres.

The scent of blood from the S.A.S in the air apparently triggered a fit of rage in the Cameronian that I had been hunting before, as the barely patched together creature suddenly came crashing out of a building on the right flank, running right towards the Bounty Hunters on that side.

As bullets slammed in all around him the Cameronian came on, throwing a smoke grenade in between himself and the Bounty Hunters, but apparently his mad advance had been too overconfident as he was hit by one of “Lotus Justice”’s Sniper Bullets on his run, which forced the man-beast into cover behind a nearby building.

Before I could respond to the attack on the right flank, I was hit by my own set of trouble as a Highlander Grey suddenly came dashing out behind a building on the other side of the recon area, letting lose on my position with an armour piercing heavy machine gun! I responded as quickly as possible by peppering the area in the Highlander Grey’s general direction with Spitfire bullets, but the amount of armour piercing slugs coming my way was just too much, and as the first few bullets luckily bounced off my armour and cover, I decided to retreat back behind the building I was standing beside and wait for a better opportunity to counter attack.

Apparently a 45 Highlander had been waiting for just that to happen, as he suddenly came dashing around the containers in front of my team, and opened up fire on the Kanren Umibozus that where standing around there.

With a flickering smirk on their faces the Holo Echoes of the real Kanren Umibozu simply vanished into thin air under the onslaught of Chainrifle ammunition, and the heroic shout on the Highlanders face instantly was replaced by a painful one as Celestial Guard Shen Jing placed a bullet firmly into the exposed Caledonian’s chest.

Knowing that his wound was fatal, but unwilling to let go, the wild Highlander raised his Chain rifle in defiance and came dashing at Shen Jing, revenge in his eyes as he pulled the trigger.

Luckily Shen Jing’s armour held true as she placed yet another bullet into the Highlander, this time ending the madman’s onrush.

Kanren Umibozu in the meantime seemed to have run out of luck as the Caledonian Volunteer Team lead by the Highlander Grey suddenly came running around the other side of the Containers, and shoot him down before he could properly react.

Luckily his vital signs were still being transmitted, so if we acted quick we most likely would have been able to save him, but apparently the enemy wasn’t going to make that job easy for us as a Caledonian Moramaer suddenly came around a building on the right flank of the Recon Area, blocking our lines of advance with her imposing presence.

But it seemed that the Moramaer hadn’t considered “Sucker Punch”’s confidence, because as soon as the smoke from the Cameronian’s Smoke Grenade cleared, the Bounty Hunter opened fire on the Moramaer, dealing a mortal blow to her. Just as the Highlander though the Moramaer remained standing, refusing to die so easily.

As the firefight between the Moramaer and the despite her looks also heavily armoured Bounty Hunter raged on, I took the opportunity to make the Volunteer Team that had just taken out Kanren Umibozu pay for their carelessness, by shooting down a Volunteer that had advanced slightly too much, exposing itself to my Spitfire.

With a loud and cheerful “Take that you Atek Tincan!!” “Sucker Punch” had apparently taken out the Caledonian Moramaer for good, and as the prolonged firefight came to an end, with the flank finally clear of danger, I decided to make my move.

Dashing forward right towards the containers and around it, I was suddenly standing in front of the Volunteer and Highlander Grey that had been taking cover there, and as their wild shoots where flying in all around me and bouncing off my armour, I opened up on them with my two Nano Pulsers, ending them in a series of painful screams that soon fell silent.

Seeing as their comrades had been taken out the remaining 112 Emergency Unit and the wounded Cameronian decided to take this chance and retreat back to where they came from, once again apparently disappearing into thin air.

As our backup squad finally arrived, taking care of the wounded Kanren Umibozu, we finally managed to get access to the Control Consoles, and eventually found the little secret hidden inside them. Apparently among their many functions, these consoles also allowed to open a set of hidden maintenance access hatches to the area known as “The Onxy Tiger”, which lay right beneath the ground of some areas of “The Neon Dragon”.

With a loud hissing sound the access hatches nearby opened up, revealing some dark corridors leading into the unknown, and as I sent in the backup squads to check the path ahead, I decided to head home for today…..the sun was already slowly rising, and I’d need at least a little bit of sleep before my official shift started…..after all this would become quite the interesting day for sure!

Hearing the comforting voice of Kuang Fu Bao in my helmet’s com, claiming a hearty “Leave it all to me sir, by the time you’re awake, we’ll know where those rats are hiding and we’ll be ready to strike!”, I just nodded in his direction and entered the troop transporter that would get me home. So much for Street Performance….tomorrow it would be time for some Underground Art!

 

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Comments:

Sorry for the very long delay in between updates this time. I have been quite busy with my birthday and stuff, and afterwards both my wife and son got sick, instantly followed by myself once they where ok again, so the last 3 weeks weren’t exactly productive:-(

But soon many more updates will rush in as I’ll slowly conquer all the awesome stuff I got for my birthday! my table is now almost complete, and I can’t wait to play a proper game on it once that’s done!

Hope you enjoyed this battle report, we tried out the Recon Mission set as I wanted to bring my wife closer to the idea of mission gameplay, but in the end she got murdered so badly, that the consoles didn’t even matter ;-P