Ilya came to his senses as adrenaline jump-started his body. He was lying on his stomach in the dust, but he was not alone. A bestial stench washed over him, and something huge … no, something gigantic sniffed at his back. He heard rocks crack and felt the ground shift as the megabeast turned away, apparently uninterested in the little morsel of food.
Ilya dared to open an eye, blinking away a crust of dust or dried blood. He saw the bulk of Bubbles’ – who the hell named something monstrous like this “Bubbles”!? – massive body moving past as if in slow motion. It stopped here and there to sniff at something on the ground, once moving aside a chunk of rubble that must have weighed several tons with a casual flick of the paw. It felt like a week until it finally vanished between the ruined walls that encircled the area.
The fourth and final part of “The Monday Signal” campaign is “The Megabeast Sleeps Tonight” created by the Infinity podcast “WIP 12”. Now it’s all or nothing, as we are fighting for the Ruby Monday’s hoard of Xenotech artifacts, guarded by a Megabeast she affectionately christened “Bubbles”.
We—meaning my Haqqislam force and Uli’s Druze—must recover Xenotech from the sleeping Bubbles’ lair, preferably without waking him up. If he does wake up, we can put him back to sleep using a special weapon that can be retrieved from a special box (Supply Cache). Without it, operating in the center of the battlefield becomes extremely dangerous. Theoretically, you could kill the Megabeast, but Bubbles is so tough that it’s hardly worth the effort.
After the raid on the laboratory both Haqqislam and Druze forces are congregating on the final target: Ruby Monday’s treasure cache.
Kleio ignored the curious looks of the one the mercenaries called “Fiddler”, but it worried her that the inquisitive and hyperactive engineer had taken a special interest in her persona. Due to their ever-changing rosters, infiltrating a transient “Brawler” mercenary company was notoriously easy, but that didn’t mean it was without risk. This was the third time now she was trying to mess with this crew’s operation, and something was bound to go wrong sooner or later.
Kleio had already taken more time than she wanted to get into position again. She knew Saladin had faced the Druze at Bureau Lakshmi’s secret research facility without her help, but time had simply been to short. She spared a moment’s thought for Ilya, and felt surprisingly relieved that he hadn’t been hurt in that engagement.
As they approached the coordinates where Ruby Monday had supposedly hidden her cache of xenotech artifacts, the lieutenant gave orders to spread out and cover the site. To Kleio’s eyes, it looked like the remains of a huge dome that had collapsed and blanketed the area in debris. She moved away from the group and slipped behind an old piece of wall that still protruded from the ground. Out of sight, out of mind — perhaps the engineer would stop worrying about her.
Parallel to the release of the new 2-player starter box “Mazebreaker” for Infinity N5 Corvus Belli initiated a small narrative campaign. Its missions were designed and published by a variety of Infinity podcasters and YouTubers. I had great fun playing this campaign and writing some stories around it, and because I haven’t seen a central place to collect all the fan-made content (yet), I created this small archive. It’s purpose is to link to all the various content surrounding the campaign, from the official missions to battle reports and fiction.
If you have any links to such content that I missed here, please let me know and I’ll be happy to add it.
Apologies to all of the non-English or German-speaking content creators out there, those are the only two languages I speak, and that’s why the list is limited to those (so far).
Here is the third part of “The Monday Signal” campaign for Infinity N5. In the “Black Box” scenario, my Haqqislamites and my opponent’s Druze Bayram Security (DBS) must infiltrate a secure research lab and find a cure for the Megabeast guarding Ruby Monday’s treasure.
This mission was designed by Metachemistry, one of the longest-running Infinity podcasts.
Of course, the story of Ilya and Kleio continues as well, because we want to find out how young Sāchā survived the last battle.
Ilya woke up on a camp bed and didn’t know where he was. A moment of panic welled up as he remembered the hulking TAG coming into view and the pain in his shoulder just before the lights went out. He couldn’t move his right arm and reached over with the other, feeling the delicate mesh of a medi-silk bandage.
“Careful, the tissue is still regenerating.”
Ilya turned his head towards the voice and saw Kleio sitting on a folding chair, combat boots up on some medical supply box. A canvas wall stretched up behind her, meeting a low ceiling of the same material. He tried to focus on her face, but his eyes didn’t cooperate, probably due to the cocktail of healing drugs coursing through his body.
We continue with the “The Monday Signal” campaign for Infinity N5. The second scenario is “Ghost in the Feed“, in which my Haqqislam force and their opponents, Druze Bayram Security, search for Ruby Monday’s treasure among the ruins of a fallen alien civilization.
The mission was written by Robert Shepherd, a prominent Infinity YouTuber who produces excellent battle reports and faction analyses. If you have even a passing interest in the tactical depth of Infinity, you should definitely check out his channel.
Once again, I wrote a short story for the introduction of the mission, continuing the tale of the young Sāchā Ilya and the Fiday Kleio. You can find it in this separate post.
One of the clues in Ruby Monday’s treasure hunt led to a group of ravers and an illegal rave out in the desert. An Haqqislam team clashed with Druze mercenaries over the information those ravers carried and emerged victorious.
Ilya felt lost. He was sitting on one of the many boom boxes scattered around the site, but the music was off, the lights were out, and dawn was creeping up the sky. Most of the ravers had fled and been replaced by medics and technicians, who were were tending to the wounded and broken. One of the techs had deactivated the antipersonnel mine that had been sitting malevolently close to Ilya for the last couple hours. He was grateful for that, but it also meant that Kleio was gone now. She had melted into the crowd of soldiers and professionals without so much as a goodbye, leaving Ilya alone, unsure what to do and where to go.
A tall man approached him. He was clad in army fatigues, sported a neatly trimmed black beard and had long hair pulled back into a knot at the back of his head. He didn’t show any insignia, but carried an unmistakable aura of authority.
“You are good, son?” He looked Ilya up and down and seemed satisfied that the Sāchā wasn’t hurt.
“Yes, sir, I’m fine. Who are you? What happened here?” Ilya couldn’t contain his curiosity.
“I am the commander of this task force. We’re here to track Ruby Monday and make sure that whatever she may have uncovered doesn’t fall into criminal hands and causes no harm to Shinju and the Human Sphere.” He paused and observed Ilya’s expression for a moment, who felt skeptical but tried not to show it.
“You are a Sāchā, right?” He continued. “You know your way around the ruins?”
Ilya nodded.
“Would you like a job? We need someone local, as we follow the trail that Ruby left behind.” Ilya’s Geist picked up details of an employment offer: Off the record, but well paid, good medical benefits, Cube insurance.
“I don’t know… ” Ilya looked around, scanning for any sign of Kleio.
The man smiled. “The operative you met earlier is with us as well. You’ll meet her again soon enough.”
Shinju is the latest planet discovered and settled by humanity, but they are not the first to live here. It is littered by long abandoned alien ruins that speak of a highly advanced civilization. Among the settlers a subculture of treasure hunters has sprung up, who venture into the ruins to look for xenotech artifacts. They call themselves Sāchā.
Ruby Monday is one of these Sāchā, perehaps the most famous ones. She has recently vanished, but mysterious messages from here have appeared, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to a highly valuable stash of xenotechnology. Various faction scramble to secure these artifacts to prevent them from doing irreversible damage – or use them for their own ends.
Ilya couldn’t believe his luck. First he had stumbled upon his first ever proper xenotech cache, and while nothing of the … things was in working condition, he was sure they would sell for a pretty penny and more importantly make him a proper Sāchā.
Second – and maybe this was a direct result of the first – he had received an invitation by none other than the famous Ruby Monday herself to a Kazureibu rave out in the desert. Lots of people would hear about it along the usual Maya channels of course, but to receive a personal invitation was special, real special!
Third – and this occupied Ilya’s full attention at the moment – a beautiful girl seemed to be falling for him hard. She had smiled at him among the dancers under the slowly darkening sky of Shinju, and when he sent her some of his personal tunes to overlay over the baseline, she had synced to them, done some improv variations and sent them right back.
Corvus Belli has launched a new narrative campaign called The Monday Signal, centering around the treasure hunter (“Sāchā”) Ruby Monday, who has left a trail of breadcrumbs leading to a special treasure or location. The missions and a series of thematic audio clips can be found in the Mission Geist app.
Two of my friends agreed to play the campaign with me, and I want to document the games here—at least partially—with battle reports for the various missions and a little lore/story here and there. I already wrote a short prelude story to our first game in A Sāchā’s Love, and what follows here is the actual battle report.
Mission and Battlefield
The campaign’s first mission, “Raid on the Kazureibu”, is a search for the first data fragments Ruby left behind. Specifically, she left them with her friends, colleagues, and rivals in the treasure hunter community (the eponymous Kazureibu). They are meeting up at a massive, illegal rave on the planet Shinju, and the goal is to scan them, secure them, and dominate the final one. The mission is complicated by the fact that the data jumps to different ravers from round to round, and the rave’s lights and special effects obstruct visibility (represented by four Eclipse Zones that block all Line of Fire).
We agreed not to play this first mission at the full 300 points. Instead, we used 200 points to try out a smaller game size and give the whole thing the vibe of a limited special operation. As a result, the battlefield is slightly narrower than usual (3′ instead of 4′), but the depth remains the same (4′). Furthermore, to keep things simple, we will not play inside the buildings: all doors are locked and cannot be opened.
The Armies – Druze Bayram Security (Uli)
Uli, my opponent and most frequent Infinity opponent, brought one of his favorite armies: Druze Bayram Security, a mercenary unit with a bad rep and plenty of ties to various criminal syndicates. So, these are definitely the bad guys. Since I’ve had the pleasure of playing against Uli’s Druze many times, I had a general idea of what to expect: airborne Yuan Yuan, a holomasked Tao Wu, Diggers, Brawler snipers, and a nasty hidden Ninja in the midfield (Saito Togan).
I reconstructed his list as best as I could, though I don’t know every exact detail. We will see what appears as the game progresses.
Haqqislam (Me)
I am playing my beloved Haqqislam faction, which received some nice upgrades in N5—especially Saladin, who is leading my force today. His newly acquired Inspiring Leadership skill makes list-building significantly easier. However, since this paints (even bigger) crosshairs on his forehead, I brought a Bashi Bazouk. Using Holomask and Holoprojector, he creates three fake Saladins, which should make attacking my lieutenant a lot harder.
For the heavy lifting, an Asawira with an AP Spitfire is on board, and Knauf is tasked with systematically taking problematic enemies out of the game. Our specialists for scanning the ravers are a Sāchā and an Al Hawwa’ Hacker (with the Bashi serving as backup), while two Muttawi’ah, a Daylami, and a Warcor handle defense. Finally, there is a Fiday. Uli loves setting up a Brawler Sniper in a hard ARO, which can give even Knauf a run for his money, and the Fiday is a great tool to remove him from the equation. This brings the total to 11 units, meaning the Warcor has to go into a combat group by herself. However, if I suffer casualties, Saladin can easily move her into the main group as a replacement.
Saladin wins the Lieutenant roll. Since going second offers certain advantages in this mission, I choose the deployment zone, forcing the Druze to deploy first. Uli could still choose to take the second turn, but that would be highly dangerous, as it would leave him with no way to counter-deploy against the Fiday. Consequently, he opts for the first turn and sets up his Druze.
As expected, a Brawler with a MULTI Sniper Rifle and MSV2 (in a Duo Fireteam) takes up an overwatch position on the right flank, while another Brawler Duo sets up on the left. Then there are two Diggers acting as Impetuous attackers, and Fiddler with her two Jackbots as a specialist. One of the three Brawlers must be the Lieutenant, and another is likely Tao Wu. Uli holds back one model, leaving two slots open in his combat group for airborne troopers. I am firmly accounting for two Yuan Yuans.
Accordingly, I make every effort to make my Saladin a complicated target. I deploy him amidst the holographic echoes of the Bashi Bazouk (who is disguised as Saladin) on a roof near the Warcor, over which the Daylami also has a clear line of sight.
My two specialists, the Al Hawwa’ and the Sāchā, infiltrate forward into two of the Eclipse Zones. Keep in mind that at this stage, we don’t yet know which two ravers will be the Intel Carriers for the round, so nobody knows exactly where the specialists need to go.
The Muttawi’ah cover as much ground as possible with their Jammers, and the Asawira deploys on the left flank, where he has a good avenue of approach. Thanks to Saladin, I get to hold back two models: my Fiday and Knauf.
Uli sends me out of the room to place his final model in Hidden Deployment, which has to be a Ninja—either a Kunai Solutions Ninja or Saito Togan. In return, I place Knauf where he will hopefully get a few lines of fire on my turn, and the Fiday directly next to the Brawler Sniper. She passes her WIP roll (needing a 15) and is allowed to deploy inside Uli’s deployment zone.
Then, it’s time to determine the Intel Carriers. It turns out to be the two ravers on the Druze side of the battlefield. This is good for Uli’s first turn to secure points, as both are practically out of sight from my side (partly due to the Eclipse Zones), but bad for the later stages, because everything will shift to my side.
Round 1 – Druze
The Druze begin with a distinctly peaceful turn, focusing entirely on the mission objectives. Fiddler advances on her left flank, scans Intel Carrier #1 without any issues, and stays close to secure him. In the center of the table, a camouflaged unit appears, moves to Intel Carrier #2, and reveals himself as Saito Togan, who also has no trouble with the scan.
However, he leaves the securing duties to a Digger who entrenches himself in the nearby Eclipse Zone, while Saito retreats back into the center and recamouflages.
And with that, Uli’s turn is already over. Due to his two airborne troopers, his order pool is quite small, and he doesn’t see a good target to bring them into play just yet.
Round 1 – Haqqislam
I have to overcome significantly more resistance to secure my points for round 1. Both Muttawi’ah use their Impetuous Orders, and the one with the Boarding Shotgun immediately picks a fight with Fiddler’s first Jackbot.
After successfully dealing with it, she seizes the opportunity to engage Fiddler herself. She wins the first face-to-face roll, but Fiddler passes both armor saves. Then, Fiddler lands a critical hit, and the brave Muttawi’ah dies instantly, unable to even utilize her Dogged state.
Let’s look at the other flank. Unfortunately, the Eclipse Zones block all lines of fire for Knauf, and the enemy sniper has a good eye on the Intel Carrier. So, the Fiday has to go to work. Staying low to the ground, she creeps up on the Brawler from behind and promptly dispatches him in close combat. However, thanks to his Sixth Sense, he sees her coming. Instead of engaging in a probably futile melee or shootout, he drops a Mine. He is dead, but the Fiday can now only perform further actions at high risk.
The Al Hawwa’ manages to reach Intel Carrier #2 unseen and successfully scans him. Unfortunately, he cannot secure him because the Digger is still nearby, who can only be attacked in close combat due to the Eclipse Zone. The Al Hawwa’ could hack him, but that won’t remove him from the scoring zone.
To tackle the Digger in melee, I need a competent close combatant. The Fiday would be ideal, but the risk of dying to the mine is too high. So, the Asawira is called up as the next best option. He reaches the Digger without trouble, but the fight is grueling. The Asawira takes a wound and requires a total of three orders to eliminate the Digger. After that, only one order remains, which he uses to reposition into a better spot, and – with a bit of luck – to discover Saito Togan.
Score Update: I have scanned only one Intel Carrier but am securing it, earning 2 points. The Druze have scanned both Intel Carriers, and Fiddler is securing the first one. They take a 3:2 lead.
Round 2 – Druze
Before the Druze are forced to go on the offensive, the new Intel Carriers are determined and the Eclipse Zones shift. Intel Carrier #3 is Helen of Troy in the center, and Carrier #4 is the Dragon Lady on my right flank. This means my left flank will become the hotspot at the end of the game. I’m happy about this, as Knauf is nearby. Uli is at least relieved that an Eclipse Zone moves right into the center of the table, swallowing both Helen and Saito Togan.
This gives Uli a clear first objective: Saito Togan scans Helen and starts flirting with the beauty. A Yuan Yuan drops in behind the Asawira but doesn’t attack, choosing instead to hold position. His Chain Rifle is now a lethal threat to the Asawira.
Since it is difficult for Fiddler to reach Intel Carrier #4 herself, she sends her remaining Jackbot forward. It manages to eliminate the Al Hawwa’, the Sāchā, and the remaining Muttawi’ah. This is where my reliance on the Eclipse Zones for protection backfires. Because they move before the turn begins, the Druze had a window of opportunity before I could reposition my vulnerable specialists.
Their deaths theoretically clear the path for Saito to scan the second Intel Carrier as well. However, the casualties from the previous round now take their toll, and Uli runs out of orders. He could bring in his last airborne trooper, but the model wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything else, so it stays in reserve.
Haqqislam (Turn 2)
I have now suffered quite a few casualties myself, and above all, I am missing my two midfield specialists. Therefore, the Bashi Bazouk will have to drop his disguise as Saladin, as he is my only remaining specialist.
The Asawira would normally have an Impetuous Order due to his Frenzy skill and the killed Digger, but since he is standing within range of a Yuan Yuan’s Chain Rifle, I think it wiser to cancel it. Fortunately, Knauf can now spring into action, as a line of sight has opened up through the shifting Eclipse Zones. A well-aimed shot eliminates the Yuan Yuan and frees the Asawira from his predicament.
The Bashi Bazouk quickly scans Intel Carrier #4 (Dragon Lady). He doesn’t need to secure her, as the Warcor is handily already inside the Zone of Control. This allows the Bashi to march onward toward Intel Carrier #3 (Helen) in the center of the board. He makes it into the surrounding Eclipse Zone and into base-to-base contact, but then a jealous Saito Togan passes his Dodge and engages him in close combat. Even though I can no longer scan or secure Helen, I at least prevent the Druze from securing her.
I have a few orders left to inflict as much damage as possible with the Asawira. He engages the remaining Brawlers in the Druze deployment zone and manages to kill the Lieutenant, as well as identify and eliminate Tao Wu. This means the Druze will be in Loss of Lieutenant during their final round.
Score Update: The Druze scanned another Intel Carrier but secure none thanks to the brave Bashi Bazouk. I scanned one and am securing it, bringing the total score to a dead tie at 4:4.
Round 3 – Druze
The last remaining raver (Ksenia Lavochkina) on my left side becomes the final Intel Carrier, and as if it were planned all along, the Eclipse Zones converge right on top of her. Uli tallies his units and only has 3 orders left: Saito Togan, Fiddler, and the Brawler Doctor. Since he still has 3 Command Tokens, the Loss of Lieutenant doesn’t hinder him much.
First, he lands his second Yuan Yuan, who successfully drops onto Knauf’s roof but fails to survive the ARO shot from the nearby Daylami.
Saito activates and kills the Bashi Bazouk almost in passing. Uli then reviews his remaining options and realizes that only Fiddler can still reach and scan Ksenia. To do so, however, she must brave a Flash Pulse from the Warcor and a shot from Knauf. She survives both, disappears into the Eclipse Zones, and successfully scans the final carrier.
Haqqislam (Turn 3)
I have no specialists left, meaning I cannot scan the final Intel Carrier, but Fiddler has to go anyway so that I can secure it. First, Knauf takes out Saito Togan so he won’t interfere or potentially Dodge into the Zone of Control.
I still have enough orders left to move the Asawira all the way over from the other side of the table. For a brief moment, the remaining Jackbot stalls him by Dodging into close combat, threatening to detonate. Fortunately, the civilian Ksenia is already too close, and safety protocols block the explosion upon the Jackbot’s destruction. [Note: This was incorrect. In N5 civilians don’t block templates anymore, they simply don’t take any damage. But we did roll a damage save for the Asawira, just to be sure, and he passed it.]
Fiddler herself offers no resistance to the Asawira. He kills her, secures and dominates the final Intel Carrier without any problems (Knauf would have been in range as well).
Final Scoring
The Druze receive another victory point for scanning Ksenia, while Haqqislam gets one for securing and two for dominating.
Druze Bayram Security: 5 points
Haqqislam: 7 points
The game ends 7:5 for the good guys!
Summary
Many thanks to Uli for a tense and exciting game. We both found it very refreshing to play a smaller match with “just” 200 points. The “Raid on the Kazureibu” mission worked brilliantly at this scale.
My “man of the match” is clearly the Asawira who killed a whole bunch of opponents, including the lieutenant and chain of command on the same turn. On the Druze’s I’d say it was Fiddler, even of Saito Togan did a lot of work as well.
The mission is highly interesting and unpredictable—both the randomized sequence of the Intel Carriers and the shifting of the Eclipse Zones introduce an extra element of chance that you don’t normally see in missions. It might not be ideal for a strict tournament setting, but it’s fantastic for a narrative campaign. The player going second definitely has a certain advantage, especially because it’s quite easy to contest the opponent’s ability to secure an Intel Carrier. However, the movement of the Eclipse Zones at the start of Round 2 and Round 3 balances things out a bit by favoring the first player, who can immediately exploit the suddenly altered lines of sight.
A big thank you to the creators of the Loss of Lieutenant Podcast who wrote the mission, and I’m already looking forward to the next ones by Robert Shepherd. Bring it on!
