As the Neon Lights of the City turned on one after the other, turning the surrounding streets into a nimbus of colours and schemes, my strike team and I were just about to reach the outer areas of the Onxy Tiger subterranean shopping centre known as “Wong’s Best Prices”.
Not exactly a glamorous name, and not exactly the best area of the City either, but considering that we were expecting the Caledonian base to be something along the line of a secret underground base hidden somewhere behind some narrow maintenance corridor, realizing that their hideout was actually in a brightly lit shopping centre which even was accessible by cars, was kind of a nice surprise.
Apparently the access hatches we had uncovered eventually lead here, serving as some sort of emergency rescue corridors for the underground facilities, and the Caledonian Scoundrel had just been using them to secretly sneak around the areas above.
The Caledonian “Base of operation” also turned out to be little more than a block of buildings taken over by the thugs, but our infiltrator suggested that they were actually packing some heavy firepower in there, so careful approach was required.
As we came closer a short data burst arrived over the battle network and the image of an animated racoon wearing a scarf and a huge sake gourd on its back suddenly flashed up on my helmet display. Striking a dramatic pose with one hand stretched out and one behind the head the Racoon started to shake his head sideways and stomp down with one of his feet in front of him, while proclaiming “Yooooooo Taichoooooo!!! …” the part was followed by a “Dudunkun” drum sound “Beware there are some S.A.S Infiltrators lying in ambush, apparently they know we’re coming…”. Once this short message was delivered the Racoon stood upright, made a ninja hand gesture in front of him, and disappeared into a cloud of smoke with a nod, finally leaving me with a clear helmet display again.
I’d most likely never fully understand how Kabuki Queen’s mind worked, but at least she was good at her job, and it was fun to be around her, even if it was sometimes hard to know whether you actually where around her or not.
Warned about the ambush I quickly sent Kanren Umibozu ahead to pinpoint the location of the ambush, and then took position on a nearby building that allowed for a good view of the surrounding area, including parts of the Caledonian base. “Lotus Justice” took position right next to me, and Father Anderson was covering the approach to my right with his deadly Viral Rifle.
The main body of my strike team, a formation of the two newly arrived Crane Agents and 3 Celestial Guards, where positioned behind the building I was covering to allow for quick deployment where needed.
As the first Caledonian soldiers came into view, I gave the sign to start the operation, and on my mark a smoke grenade from one of the celestial guards popped open right in front of me, covering my whole rooftop in a smoke screen.
Instantly my field of view changed a little as the Multi Spectral Visor of my Hsien Armour took over and compensated for the smoke, allowing me a clear view right through the smoke and at the enemies behind it.
The moment my smoke screen rose up some sort of automated alarm arose from the Caledonian base, and a archaic looking rocket platform that had previously been hidden behind a cardboard box sprung to live, shedding its cardboard skin and scanning the surrounding area for targets for its deadly payload.
Not too keen of the idea of fighting a mobile rocket launcher platform I still decided that I was in the best position to take care of it, and thus I aimed my hand crafted heavy machine gun at the thing and opened up fire through the smoke.
Apparently the sensors of the rocket platform where too weak to penetrate my smoke screen even though I fired right through it, and so a measly attempt of the thing to move back a little in hopes of avoiding some of the slugs coming its way was all it could do before it got shredded to pieces by the storm of my bullets.
Opening up the internal communication channels I messaged a quick “Beware, enemy automated weapon platforms spotted…..”
“I swear it ladies, that’s exactly how it happened! There I was, standing on this god forsaken rooftop in the middle of some run down shopping mall called “Wangs wobbly Wiener” or something like that. And just as I was down on my knees, praying together with my Holo Echoes for the Lord to cleanse this filthy place…..what? Why with the Holo Echoes you ask? Obviously the more pray the better right? Don’t be stupid, of course that matters! But let me continue on damn it, and bring me another glass of Champaign, my throat is getting sore…”
“Aaah…that’s better, now where was I? Oh right, praying to the Lord to cleanse the filthy bunghole that was that place. So right after I prayed and stood back up, making the sign of the cross on my chest, I notice some strange movement right on the other side of the street where the communication array and the boxes of orange juice had been standing…..only the boxes of Orange Juice where gone! And instead of them there was this big metallic Atek looking thing now, scanning the surroundings with a red laser beam. And what did it have on its back? A bunch of bloody rockets!!”
“So as I instantly duck down into cover and aimed my trusty little rifle “Judgement” at the thing, my com suddenly bursts into action and the Commander warns us of some sort of automated weapon platform…..a little too fucking late I think to myself as I aim down my sight at the thing. But then, just as I was about to squeeze the trigger and pepper the thing with sweet sweet Justice, everything suddenly turns red! The damned thing had pointed its laser scanner at my sight and had blinded me!! “
“Now you know, every other fucker out there with less experience than me would have cowered down in panic right then and there, but not me you know, I’ve fought blinded more often than most of those Caledonian dogs that day had ever fought in their entire life! So I just shut my eye and looked through the sight with my other eye, but I was too late!! The last thing I saw that day was a large puff of smoke as the thing shoot a salvo of rockets my way, and I shit you not, one of that damn things exploded right in my damn face, knocking me unconscious!”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M FULL OF SHIT? I’m telling you that’s how I got this scar right there; I took a bloody rocket to the face! And I live to tell the tale, the Lord’s my witness! What? Yeah sure you can touch it, but only if I can touch yours as well! Mwahaha!”
Excerpt from Chapter 2.5 “Father Anderson, Legend or Liar” of “Drunk and Delirious, Bar Stories from The Neon Dragon”, recorded by Chu Bu Ju for Maya Net.
A moment after I sent my warning I could see the rooftop next to me turn into a giant fireball, as one of the automated rocket platforms apparently found Father Anderson and peppered his position with rockets.
Pretty sure that even that tough son of a gun wouldn’t be able to stay operational after a salvo like that I quickly opened Coms again “Strike Team, Anderson has been taken out, please proceed to flank the weapon platform with utmost care and then advance for the left flank.”
A short “Roger that” confirmed my order, and a moment later I could see the squad advance from behind the building, and the Crane Agent with the Spitfire open up fire at the Rocket pod across the street.
A series of metallic screeches sounded the apparent success of the Crane Agent in taking down the thing, and with a nod towards my position, the Strike team advanced forward towards the left flank.
As they came around a huge planter the strike team suddenly stood right in front of a 5 man team of Caledonian Volunteers, led by a Highlander Grey and accompanied by some sort of redheaded girl with what looked like a primitive hacking device below her feet.
Without hesitation the Crane Agent let his Spitfire do the talking once more, and during a prolonged fire fight, he mowed down all 5 of them, as well as a S.A.S agent that had revealed himself at some point during the fire right in an attempt to ambush the Crane Agent.
At this point the Caledonians finally managed to assemble something that resembled a counter attack, and driven by the thirst for vengeance for their fallen comrades, and the smell of blood in the air, two Cameronians and a 45 Highlander suddenly popped in the open right across the street.
Apparently the creatures hadn’t seen me taking out their rocket platform as both of them instantly started throwing smoke grenades in their path. I let them both pay for their stupidity by ripping one apart with my HMG, and heavily wounding the other one, my Multi Spectral Visor once again allowing me to see right through their smoke grenades.
Since “Lotus Justice” didn’t have a Multi Spectral Visor she wasn’t as lucky and her shoots didn’t manage to connect to any of them, but her suppression fire still managed to severely restrict the movements of the wounded Cameronian.
The 45th Highlander that had also popped up in my field of view was smarter than his Cameronian counterparts, which isn’t hard when compared to half human half dog creatures, and managed to dodge behind a nearby building, apparently searching for an entrance to reach Kabuki Queen, who was hiding inside of said building.
Apparently the Caledonian commander had had enough of me mowing down his troops, and a Cateran revealed himself on a roof of the Caledonian hideout, opening up fire on me with his T2 Sniper rifle from just outside of my Suppression fire range. Knowing of the deadly potential of these weapons I quickly went prone behind my cover as a bullet luckily bounced off my armour…the Emperors present already showing it’s priceless worth!
With me out of the picture for now, the Caledonians grew bolder again, and the wounded Cameronian circled the little fast food stall that Kabuki Queen was hiding in, in an attempt to crawl through the window to get to her, but he apparently hadn’t thought about “Lotus Justice”, who now took the opportunity of a smoke free shot to finish off the wounded Cameronian!
Giving up on Kabuki Queen the Highlander then proceeded to throw a smoke Grenade on the street, and the enemy commander, a female Moramaer, used this to advance towards a favourable firing position, ignoring the bullets of “Lotus Justice” that where bouncing uselessly off her heavy armour plates.
While his commander advanced, a Caledonian Engineer took the opportunity to advance towards the Rocket Platform that had previously taken out Father Anderson, and with a few routine movements and a lot of luck, he managed to repair the bullet riddled thing back into operation, the search laser glowing back into action and instantly scanning its surroundings.
With the initiative back in our hands I instantly took the opportunity to shoot at the enemy commander, fully aware that his weapon was more than capable of wounding me, but unwilling to let go of this opportunity to put a quick end to this battle.
The ensuing fire fight was a rough one as countless bullets came flying in both directions, my superior position giving me the advantage in the offense, but the Moramaers heavy armour making her almost impervious to my bullets. After a while however the superior amount of firepower and the better position won the fire fight in my favour as the enemy commander first took a wound in the arm, and as she stumbled yet another one straight to the neck, right in between her helmet and chest plate.
Slowly getting surrounded on all sides and with their commander taken out, the Caledonians decided that it was time to fight another day, and as one of the S.A.S whisked away the body of her Commander, they retreated from the battlefield, leaving their base behind, my agents hot on their heels.
Most of them got away, their superior knowledge of the area allowing them to vanish, but not all of them where so lucky….
“Damn my commander for forcing me out here into the open with nothing but a Traktor Mul to protect me… ;-( “
“It’s your duty Jeoffrey, don’t be an arse.”
“What do you mean it’s my duty? I’m an Engineer, I fix things, not shoot them, if I had wanted to shoot stuff I would have become a Moramaer…”
“You’re a Combat Engineer, Combat, you know, the thing where you shoot others?”
“Oh screw you Bourne, you know full well that there are no normal Engineering positions to be had around here, who would want a Caledonian Engineer in The Neon Dragon? They’d just laugh at me and walk away with their Holo shit and Cyber Yadayada..”
“Tough life man, now shut the fuck up and do your job, shouldn’t you be guarding the area instead of writing here? You know them Asians, all Ninjas and shit…”
“Yeah right…Ninjas…as if. Wait a sec, something is not right with the Traktor Mul…”
“Everything alright there?”
“Yeah don’t worry man, the power supply just seems to have gone out again, guess it got hit harder than I thought…just wait a sec…”
“….”
“Haaa haaa, very funny Bourne, would you stop the crap? I’m kind of busy here you know!”
“What are you even talking about you fool?”
“That dancing Racoon that just appeared on my system diagnostics screen, very funny, now cut the crap and let me work, if that thing isn’t working I’m fucked when one of them Asians come around…”
“….”
“Bourne? Come on now, stop it! I’m serious!”
“…..”
“…..?”
“…..”
“Bourne?”
“Bourne is not here anymore…”
“What the….who are you?”
“Yoooooooooooooo!!!!”
Saved internal Chat protocol of Caledonian Prisoner Jeoffrey Mc Dougal before his apprehension by Agent Codename “Kabuki Queen”.
Comments:
Sorry Everyone for the extremely long break between my last story and this Battle Report. During the last month of my wive’s pregnancy and in the months afterwards I simply wasn’t in the mood to calmly sit down and prepare the pictures for the story I had already written…and I didn’t want to force myself either, so this one was sitting on the bench for like half a year! (Crazy how quickly time flies by when you have two small children!)
Now that I am starting to get some hobby time again, and am finally back in the mood to actually use it to play games, I decided that it was time to reactivate my Blog and get things rolling again, so hopefully you will see more happening here soon, even though it’ll most likely be at a slower pace than before….unless my Operation Wotan Hype gets too big and I start going crazy with games again ;-P
Sorry if some of the texts can’t be read properly, I still need to relearn some of the things I did before my half year break…I hope my quality will rise soon!
A little sidenote from way back when I wrote this report:
Out battle got cut short a bit by my son parking a bunch of cars on the table and having to go to bed, so it ended a little bit earlier than it could have, but the winner was pretty clear at this point anyways, my wife having heavily underestimated the brutal firepower of both my Hsien Agent and my Crane Link Team.
I hope you liked the new style of battle report with the short extra stories from the perspective of other participants of the battle, I had a lot of fun writing them for sure 😉
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.
By the time I had reached our base and entered my suite of armour, the squad I had called for stood already assembled at the elevator that would lead us to our dropship.
In the middle of the operation area Pheasant Agent Kuang Fu Bao and his Bao Troopers as well as the Sophotect Akaseni were building the solid core of the force, while “Father Anderson” and a Yudbot covered the left flank, and Celestial Guard Shen Jing with one of her Kuang Shi, a Sniper Mercenary named “Bonbori” and I myself were guarding the right flank.
Since the USAriadnan Exfiltration Team had taken control of a building covering most lanes of approach and had hunkered down there with quite a big chunk of their forces, our first step was to clear those lanes of advance, and the first way of doing so was to send the Bao Sniper that was accompanying Pheasant Agent Kuang Fu Bao’s out to take care of the enemy HMG Grunt covering the left flanks approach.
It was clearly time to teach them a lesson and inform them of my new arrival, and it was also a good opportunity to get to know some more of my subordinates, and to ensure that my little box had truly worked.
As we reached the surface I instantly received tactical data from the Su-Jian, Codename “Saberrider”, what a joker. I quickly sent out my troops according to the intel, making sure I myself stayed close to Akaseni to survey her behavior during the battle.
As I left the elevator platform which had brought me and my squad as close as possible to the supposed area of operation, I almost stumbled and fell to the ground, only barely managing to stay standing thanks to my countless hours in other types of Heavy Armour.
Hidden behind a house and several containers the Celestial Guard and their Kuang Shi took ambush positions, with me right beside them, and Kuang Fu Bao, my Pheasant Agent, was in a nearby room to cover our flanks. 
the gentle winter 