Durgama Takeover

Hsien Yue Fei of the Durian Investigation Unit. I can report a victory for Yu Jing securing the reliquary contents of Cameliard. As you can see from the images accompanying my report, our engineers and artisans have been busy improving on the Pan O architecture to make our stamp on the location.

Before I discuss our encounter with a rogue Maghariba Guard and accompanying agents of Candy Double's Candy Corps, I must share some sad news. It appears that Kyle Hawkins and Lisette Beckmann's trip to Varuna is almost over, and this latest set of intercepts from them looks likely to be the last we receive for now:

Hexahedron Operative Lisette Beckmann sank into the plush first-class seat of a passenger cabin on the Deepwater Space Elevator, the Aleph-controlled shock foam of the seat moulding itself around the voluptuous curves of her body. She took a strawberry-flavoured cigarette out and was about to light it, but a holographic warning message popped up in front of her and wagged a cartoon finger in her face, reminding her not to contaminate the oxygen supply of the elevator car. A few weeks of luxurious freedom in Ocean Vista and she'd almost forgotten how all this worked.

Behind them, at the center of the elevator car, lay a molecular neo-material engineering wonder - a nearly indestructable cable stretching from the huge Deepwater floating platform on the Varuna ocean all the way up into orbit, where it was tethered to a huge counterweight. The huge elevator car ran up and down the superconducting cable at high speeds, faster than a levitating train would on the ground. It was still slower than getting into orbit on a space craft, but the view was incredible, and Lisette had always wanted to give it a try.

When she'd broken with the Hexahedron and gone freelance a few years back she'd managed to save quite a bit of money. Right to the last minute, she was using it to make this vacation as much fun as she could. A chilled bottle of champagne sat in a cooler to her left, and to her right was another seat, containing Kyle Hawkins - Hospitaler Knight. They had the luxury cabin to themselves and could enjoy the view as the elevator car roes up and the acceleration pressed them down into their seats.

"Lisette, I feel a weight off my mind. I'm so glad I was able to get to Deepwater Cathedral and find a priest for confession," Kyle blurted out. "I know you said I should stop thinking and just enjoy the holiday, and I tried to, but it was all just buzzing around in my head and I know that I just had to get it out in front of God. That priest really just helped me figure it all out."

"Yeah, about that," Lisette started, "in the spirit of the full disclosure thing that we have going, I have to tell you that I was ordered by the Hexahedron to visit the Cathedral as soon as you left, and kill that priest. They're about 33% positive he was a Yu Jing agent, as they intercepted a full audio recording of your conversation with him going through a poorly secured repeater outside the Cathedral."

"What? He seemed so genuine. They're only 33% positive, so there's a 66% chance he was a regular priest[1]? And how did they even know I was in the cathedral so they could get close enough to hack a repeater?"

"Well, one of the conditions the Hexahedron set for this trip was that they could keep an eye on you. So they had me put a bugged shell in your Heavy MULTI Pistol[2]. Anywhere you've had that thing with you, they've been listening to everything you've been saying. I figured it wouldn't be a problem except you keep just yap-yap-yapping on about Cameliard this, Glottenburg that and so on. If you're going to live long in this job, you're going to have to learn to shut up. Also, you've barely let that bloody gun out of your sight for the whole six weeks. Maybe now you know why I kept dragging you into the shower?

"We've been bugged the whole time! How am I ever supposed to trust you after that!" Kyle yelled, then let his face fall into his hands. "You didn't even have the pistol, so what did you do to that poor priest?"

"Well, I had to improvise pretty quickly with what I could find in the Cathedral and make it look like an accident. It's tragic how you can drown in just a couple of inches of holy water, you know." Lisette had that cold look in her eye that Kyle dreaded. He knew he shouldn't ask any more questions.

"Anyway, give me that damn MULTI Pistol and I can disable the bug," Lisette said, grabbing it and cracking open the cylinder.

"Wait, what the fuck is this?"

+++ AUDIO STREAM ENDS +++

[1] We can actually raise that 66% to 100%, as we know the Yu Jing listening device is in Kyle's Heavy MULTI Pistol. That poor priest.

[2] Yanjing and the Hexahedron share many of the same methods. Though it must be noted that the end goals are much more important than the methods used to get there.

Our encounter with the Candy Corps was brief. Just as well, as the light was fading fast at our location. A huge Maghariba Guard sat astride the AC2 that we were tasked with demolishing, and started the engagement by using a mine dispenser to block the path to the AC2 with several mines. A Kameel TR bot set up to provide additional fire support.

Traps had been set, but we had the tools to make it through them. Our Hac Tao shot the Kameel and a Kuang Shi used its chain rifle and body to remove two of the midfield mines. This made a path for our Beast Hunter to prove that Yu Jing Beast Hunters are the best. Sneaking up through a smoke cloud set by our Shaolin, Shifu Deng, the Beast Hunter dived into combat with the Maghariba and slashed apart it's hydraulic systems. Fortuitously he then survived the heavy flamer attack the TAG had attempted to defend itself with, so was then able to smash the AC2 before trading his life torching a Monstrucker.

This performance of Yu Jing combat mastery was enough to send the Candy Corps into retreat for now. They seem ridiculously well funded though, so we expect this will not be the last TAG they throw our way.