Battle for Zorpel: Sneaky Robots

This is report #8 on the Battle for Zorpel.

Following a successful offensive, the humans repel the skelebots from another settlement. In this mission, James (carrying the detonation charges), Karl and Leon must destroy a robot power core that was detected in the woods, probably left behind as the robots retired. Meanwhile, a group of robot scouts is in the same area, intent on retrieving a data storage system (which was not even detected by the human command.)

Game setup. Robots at the top edge with red bases, soldiers at the bottom edge, with blue bases. The human objective is marked in red, the robot objective is marked in yellow.

The human team moved in between the ruins and woods, watching carefully for enemy contact. They knew some robots might still be in the area but their mission was very clear.
[Both sides moved avoiding contact. The robots left a sentinel to guard the human objective while the other two went for their own objective, which was reached by the fourth turn.]

Leon's energy tracker indicated that the energy core was close. He and James stepped into the woods in a coordinated movement and surprised a robot sentry, firing their rifles until it dropped to the ground. Meanwhile, Karl was standing guard near the ruins. In a moment of distraction, two skelebots dashed past him before he could fire.
[The robots started to get away with the data system, while the human soldiers managed to attack and destroy the enemy sentry.]

Robots rolled a Scurry turn, avoiding the human sentry. Then the humans rolled a firefight and killed the robot sentry.

Karl warned his companions over the commlink and moved towards them. James was concentrated setting the demolition charge on the energy core, but Leon moved out of the woods in time to fire at one of the robots as they escaped.
[In the seventh turn, the robot carrying the data system left the board. Then the humans set their demolition charge, and Leon caused the remaining skelebot to bail.]

The three soldiers reported their action to their commander, still unsure of what the robots were doing there, and why they avoided engaging.

Conclusion
This was a human victory, 8 points to 5. However, as both sides achieved their objectives and the robots rolled higher for overall progress, the campaign progress score decreased to -1. Then I rolled a "War Advances" random event, which pushed the progress score back to 0.

Leon was promoted to rifleman. The next mission will be a regular mission after 2 campaign days, so Igor will not be available yet.

The second mission in this campaign had similar parameters but the different setup changed the game entirely.