Durgama Takeover

Lieutenant Mitchell made his way quietly through the jungle. The oppressive heat and humidity brought back memories from his time at the special jungle warfare course in the Great Arboreal Reserve, on planet Aconticemento. He and his mates were part of the heavy detachment of the 56th Force Recon Battalion, freshly deployed from their garrison duty on Varuna to the frontlines of Concilium Prima. He could feel the familiar electric hum of his powered ORC armor, as he ran his unobstructed gaze across the view ahead. Somewhere there was the guardhouse he and his group were heading towards. Repeated YuJing attacks around the line of contact had made the higher-ups worried that something even worse might slip through as the knights from the Military Orders were busy keeping out the riffraff. So it fell to Mitchell to guide this group civvies and technicians to the guardhouse and back. He closed his helmet visor and the greens of the jungle were overrun with a rainbow of color from his quantronic battlefield overlay. The pale green markers denoting his ORC buddies, his fireteam. Civvies and other attached elements appeared as light blue markers. No red markers, confirmed hostiles, appeared on the overlay. Still, those YuJing bastards were clever and never shied away from ambushes.

''Spread out and keep your eyes peeled. It's way too quiet. Confirm any sighting by me and do not open fire unless fired upon. There maybe friendlies out here, the line of contact is a mess. You don't want to explain why you scratched the paint job on some knights' pretty little armor by shooting at them."

One by one all markers winked on his display. Orders received and understood. Except one. Jones, the bloody reporter, hadn't confirmed his orders. Damn civvies.

"Jones do you read? Confirm on your comlog that you've received the instruction."

Jones' voice broke in: " Oh sorry about that boss, just saw something move in the distance. Was about the move the Aerocam to get a closer look."

Mitchell sighed. "Just keep your head down. You see anything you call it in, got it?"

Jones confirmed the order.

"Movement ahead, 50 meters out. Near the guardhouse." It was the voice of corporal Herbert, he fire support of the team. "Something is moving fast. It's an alien sir, one of those Taigha creatures!"

Mitchell could hear the signature sound of the Feuerbach, a large multipurpose support weapon firing a salvo of miniature rockets. Faint sounds of explosions soon followed. "That damn thing is fast. Couldn't nail it, sir". There was a tone of frustration in Herbert's voice.

"Contact! Hostiles dead ahead. Lock and load ladies, we're going in hot!", Mitchell shouted into his radio. Rest of the team confirmed the orders.

In distance lieutenant Mitchell could see the doors of the guardhouse open. Those bloody aliens had broken in. "Our main objective is to clear out that guard post. If they shut off the sensors God knows how many will slip through the perimeter before we can plug the gap."

I deployed the bulk of the force, the five member strong ORC Core Fireteam close to the center of the deployment area, on a building as to spread them apart knowing there was 100% chance of a Speculo. Was actually waiting for two, one with the minelayer. Putting the ORCs around the building made it difficult to catch multiple troopers with templates. The only visible ARO piece from the group was the Feuerbach, as it is a real powerhouse gun with B2 EXP shots. And he was away from both Patsy and the LT, as not risk too much on round one. I put my single Fusilier on a rooftop, prone and defended by camo token to bait in the Speculo, but my adversary didn't fall for it. Using a Command Token I placed my Bulleteer into Suppression Fire, further boxing in the Speculo. Rest of the force was spread evenly out, with two camouflaged Helots covering most of the ARO duty, supported by two Flash Pulses from the WarCor and Tech-Bee. Machinist was hidden behind the right hand side of my deployment, from where he could push ahead in relative safety. And my ace in the hole was the Echo Bravo Paramedic. With endless Wild Parrots he could really mess up things on the sides if there was an opening.

Mitchell peaked around the corner. The guardhouse was visible, partially hidden behind the foliage. Suddenly corporal Herbert's voice came through on the radio. "Unidentified target, looks like civvie. She's coming straight towards my position. Holding fire."
Then another voice, a female's, broke through. "That's no civvie! It's a Speculo Killer!"
"Oh shit!" It was corporal Herbert. A pistol shot rang out, followed by silence.
"Talk to me people!" Mitchell shouted.
"Herbert and that alien freskshow are tumbling on the ground, I'm going in to help."
"No no, I've got it restrained", corporal Herbert shouted back. "They're trying to tie us down. Get to the guardhouse."
Mitchell swore under his breath. He knew corporal Herbert was right, but leaving him to wrestle that alien monster alone felt bad. Real bad.
"To the guardhouse! We'll come back for Herb after the task is done."

I proceeded to move the whole team, minus the Feuerbach ORC, towards the Armory, as their bonus to movement Terrain(Jungle) allowed me to really blitz across the table. Got lucky when a suprise ARO from a Noctifier missed it's mark and both ORCs succeeded in their Dodge Rolls. Because there was a Caliban, as a marker, inside the Armory I couldn't simply move in without getting smashed in CC, as ORCs are total garbage in that game. I tried flushing out the Caliban with Patsy's grenades put could not get both the Caliban and a Taigha under the template. And then the Taigha managed to Dodge into CC with the HMG ORC, my Lt. Not good. I moved three ORCs into CC with the Taigha (HMG, Hacker and Patsy) with Patsy leading the charge. Flubbed the B3 CC roll and flubbed the armor roll also. Pretty much a total clusterfuck end to the round. Prior to all this I brought the Echo Bravo and managed Parrot across a Haris team, shutting down a Remote and Victor Messer, but failed to shut down the Gwailo that dodged the template. I put down a second Parrot thanks to mission bonus. I ran out of orders to force the Gwailo to react under the second parrot.

Despite getting only one ORC into the Armory that lone ORC was worth more points than the lone Caliban. And all it cost me was a broken link, best change to CC anything and chance to get my Classified (Telemetry, I somehow blanked on the fact I still had Spotlight on the table) gone also. But was pretty sure that I would lose big on the second CA round as I had almost no weapons to deal with the Gwailo or dig out the Caliban.

Lieutenant Mitchell ran across the open ground, with his armor's mobility enhancers working perfectly in unison with his legs. Skipping over roots and under branches to reach the guardhouse's open door.
"Stand back Sir, I'll clear the way." It was NCO Garnett, not the real one of course, who proceeced to fling two grenades through the open door. From the flash and smoke of the explosion a small shadow emerged with blinding speed.
"Goddammit!" Mitchell exclaimed as a Taigha jumped and rammed into his chest, almost knocking him off his feet. "Get this vermin off me!"
NCO Garnett and Specialist Anderson, the team's quantronic expert, closed in to grab the fierce small alien. A scuffle ensued. The alien creature, furious and fast, managed to sink it razor sharp claws into NCO Garnett's chest before Mitchell could even react. As he brought down his combat knife and buried into the creature's skull it was to late. NCO Garnett's vital signs had flatlined. And right at the same moment a faint sound of an explosion came from the guardhouse. Trooper Gilroy, one controlling the team's TinBot protective gear and who had ran into the building from the side door, had her vital signs flatline too. Two down and Herbert still wrestling with the Speculo. Mitchell knew this was bad. The aliens still had a heavy unit lurking somewhere near here.
And then he saw a small PalBot smoldering nearby. Where had that come from? Where was the Machinist, Specialist O'Rourke gone? As he scanned his overlay he saw the faint green marker of O'Rourke, inside the building.
"Have a load of this you ugly bastard!" It was O'Rourke's voice over the radio, followed by familiar sound of an demolition charge going off. "Scratched the bastard boss, need helpin' hand here"
Mitchell cleared his thoughts. "Inside, now!" Then he send a direct command to the mobile fire support unit, their own Bulleteer remote called Gunner, to move closer. As a target of oppurtunity the geist controlling the remote unit spotted and neutralized an alien Q-drone before laying down a short burst of fire towards the guardhouse door as the remaining two ORC troopers rushed in.

My second round was just a desperate scramble to get any points into the Armory, despite knowing that I stood a snowball's chance in Hell to withstand the CC storm coming my way. Got the Machinist into CC with Gwailo, but only managed a single wound despite it being frail once you're past the nanoscreen. Didn't want to risk a second CC because I needed the 17 points he brought to be alive at the turn's end. Also moved my remaining two ORCs into the building, using my LT order to loot one of the panoplies. With no way to actually remove Caliban, as VIRD has next nothing in template weapons and garbage CC as only decent one, Patsy at CC19, was dead as dodo. I had just enough points to clinch the second time holding the Armory, but then all of my units got removed one by the Caliban in CC. As it came back to me I chose not to play my last round as I had nothing left to move into armory or any way of removing CA points from it.

Lieutenant Mitchell laid down in a corner, fallen next to the panoply he had desperately searched for anything to kill the alien monsters prowling in smoke filled guardhouse. His ORC armor had miraculously survived two explosions from shaped charges, but he knew that the wounds caused by the third charge were fatal. The explosion had blown a hole straight through the armor's chestplate. Somewhere O'Rourke's scream was cut short. He had utterly failed, gotten his teammates killed for nothing. As he lay there dying, his armor's electronics failing, he noticed a single faint green marker. Private Jenkins, the lost Fusilier they had found on their patrol. He had done as ordered and stayed put as all had gone to hell.

"Jenkins", Mitchell had to fight back the pain just to speak, "Jenkins, get to Mulebot and establish the uplink. Command must know there is a hole in the perimeter. After you've done that set the thing to self-destruct and get away. You hear me? GET THE HELL OUT! RUN!"

As Mitchell's voice failed so did his armor and the quantronic overlay vanished. There was no way to sure had his message going through or not. As a shadow moved closer in smoke Lieutenant Mitchell closed his eyes for the last time.

After Action Report
Subject: Private Jenkins, Richard
Location: Hexahedron FOB, undisclosed location on the Durgama Peninsula, planet Concilium Prima.
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Encryption Key: [MATCH]
Security Clearance Level: Indigo
ACCESS GRANTED
RECORDING BEGINS

Hexahedron Officer, Codename 'Aurelius'
"So Jenkins managed to send out the mission's combat log before destroying uplink?

Hexahedron Operative, Codename 'Wanderer'
"Yes sir. Reinforcements found Jenkins wandering behind the lines as they moved to secure the area. He alongside the two other survivors, corporal Herbert and a Helot called Ted. They're being processed by the Dominicans, just in case one them is a changeling."

Aurelius - "You we know how long the perimeter was down? Or how much filth managed to slip through while it was down?"

Wanderer - "Just guessing I'm afraid. With all the data flying through we're not sure when Jenkins' uplink reached RavenEye. And those knights took their time to secure the breach. All manner of people could have slipped through. Aliens, YuJing spies, Nomad thieves. We'll be hunting spies for weeks".

Aurelius - "We might not have that long. And the guardhouse?"

Wanderer - "Picked clean. Guns, ammo, equipment. All gone".

Aurelius - "So what are going to do now?"

Wanderer - "Jenkins' uplink message had the latest Cube backups of the team. That data is somewhere in RavenEye's databanks. Alongside our operative's backup. We have to recover her Cube data before some O-12 goon spots her, or worse a Nomad. We can ill afford to let that data slip from our grasp."

Aurelius - "And the other backups? What do you intend to do with them?"

Wanderer - "I'll make them an offer. Quick resurrection into new Lhosts, fresh gear from the armory, from the Indigo stuff."

Aurelius - "And..?"

Wanderer - "Then they can go hunt down the alien bastard behind the ambush. That ought be motivating enough."

Aurelius - "Very well. Gather what you need. We'll get you onboard the RavenEye ASAP."

END OF RECORDING
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