Durgama Takeover

For context on the story and the characters mentioned here, check out my other reports. Thanks for reading!

Intro
A light flickered up in the distance. It took to the sky in a wide arc, flaring brightly and drenching the flat laboratory buildings in a reddish, almost pink glow, before slowly descending back down, giving in to gravity. Sada watched the flare disappear behind the buildings and signaled her soldiers to advance. A dozen green-clothed figures, weapons at the ready, stealthily emerged from the trees to follow her command. She moved with them, though there was a faint, lingering pain resting in her chest with every step she took. A reminder of the injury she had suffered merely two weeks ago. In other circumstances, she would still be off duty and resting, but the Commander had urged her to get back into the fight. Division Firebird was in dire need of field officers after two weeks of heavy fighting in Durgama, and she was not the type of person to let her people down. Opening up the tactical map on her comlog, she put down a few markers to coordinate the assault, and the small attack force dispersed like flies, approaching the outpost from several angles.
"You alright?"
Sada stopped to turn to Erol, who suddenly had appeared by her side. The Druze Hacker hadn't yet closed his helmet and looked at her with concern. Small beads of sweat ran down the side of his face, the humidity of the jungle taking its toll on him.
"I'm okay", she lied. "Just make sure to keep an eye on the Data-Sphere of this place. According to the boss, Sagara was and maybe still is being kept inside these buildings. We need her."
Erol eyed her suspiciously.
"I know."
His face disappeared behind a featureless mask as he closed his helmet and turned to face the buildings.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of gunshots, arising from somewhere in front of them. It was followed by an eager voice on their comms.
"Hostile contact! Engaging, now! Let's fuck'em up, guys!"
The rest of Division Firebird seemed to approve of the message as several new sources of gunfire erupted from their positions. One after the other, red dots popped up on the tactical map, marking enemy combatants.
Sada took in a deep breath, trying to suppress the pain in her chest. She clutched her rifle and fell into a sprint, trying to reach some cover as her surroundings were drowned in a cacophony of noise.

Another intense battle at Darpan Max-Sec Vault with my forever opponent Straeyve! This time we decided to skip the mess that is Panic Room and for this last match of the campaign played our favorite mission: Supremacy! My Tactic was to bring as much dakka to the table as possible, going for Scarface with his AP Spitfire+1B and 2 Bulleteers. Luckily, I won the Lt Roll so could choose Initiative! Of course there is a disadvantage with taking the initiative in this kind of missions when the opponent has the last turn of the match, but I was hoping to hit with a crippling Alpha Strike and to dominate the table with firepower. Let's get to it!

Turn 1 - DBS
Best thing to start a match with is to call down some Yuan Yuans to mess with your opponent. This time I didn't take the risk and just had them enter the table via parachutist. Both died soon after but had some luck in stripping Straeyve of 3 Regular Orders, taking down a Danavas, a Flash Pulse Bot and a Shukra Consultant. I used one of my Pathfinder Dronbots to move towards the nearest Console and managed to activate it in one go. With a coordinated Order I then activated Scarface, Cordelia and both Bulleteers to move them into the Quadrants. I had Scarface advance even further and peeked down the left flank of the table. A few Orders later he had taken down an HMG Dakini, a Netrod and the Samekh Bot with its Guided ML. Not too bad for my first turn. My last token was spent as another Coordinated Order which I used to put Scarface and both Bulleteers in Suppression Fire Mode.

Turn 1 - OSS
I always underestimate Doctors and Engineers, especially when they have WIP 15. So, with an evil grin on his face, Straeyve activated his Posthuman that also had a Yudbot and easily managed to patch up his Flash Pulse Bot and HMG Dakini, which now was in a perfect position to attack Scarface (also he completed his Classified Objective, Test Run!). But instead of using it, Straeyve activated his Asura, who activated her Cybermask and approached Scarface with malicious intent. She managed to immobilize him from behind a tree and then turned the corner to catch him and Cordelia with her Nanopulser, damaging both of them which left Cordelia unconcious. Luckily, Scarface managed to reset his TAG and survived the following attack by the Asura's Multi-Rifle, retreating behind a corner afterwards to get out of sight of the Dakini HMG which now couldn't finish him off. Straeyve activated his Posthuman MSR, who had a good view on my Brawler HRL which was waaay out of range with his weapon, and killed him. The last Orders of Straeyve's turn were then used to move parts of his Dakini Fireteam into the Quadrants, losing 1 to an ARO by my Druze with SMR but taking her down in return. The Round ended with both players occupying 2 Quadrants, which meant 1 extra point for each of us.

DBS: 2 pts
OSS: 2 pts

Turn 2 - DBS
My goal in Turn 2 was to clear the center of the table of enemies. My Brawler Doc managed to revive the Druze SMR, who tried to take down the Dakinis, but sadly failed. I then used one of my Bulleteers to do what the Druze wasn't able to, taking down a Dakini Paramedic, another Flash Pulse Bot and the Dakini HMG, which now was unconcious the second time this match. I kept going and tried to take out the Posthuman with MSR, but she survived and jumped for cover. With few Orders left I thought of trying something fun, which was using Scarface's Berserk ability to charge the Asura. In one swipe, he managed to strip her of 2 Wounds, leaving her in NWI State.

Turn 2 - OSS
Now this Turn was all about the Asura. With bad CC abilites, her only real option was to dodge out of Close Combat and hack or shoot Scarface, so that's what Straeyve tried to do. And guess what, I rolled so badly that even the Attack Bonus of Scarface because of his CC didn't help to win the FtF Roll. The Asura successfully dodge out of Close Combat and finished Scarface off with her Multi Rifle, that bitch! She then had an easy time activating a Console right next to her and then focussing her efforts on the center of the table, where my Bulleteer was sitting unexpectingly. Ignoring its Mimetism via MSV3, she took it out, too, and then went into Suppression Fire Mode. With his other Combat Group, Straeyve once again patched up his Dakini HMG and then went on to place the Deva that was part of the Dakin Fireteam inside a Quadrant, making it harder for me to conquer it in my coming turn. With his last Order he set his Posthuman Sniper up for ARO duty. Again we both controlled 2 Quadrants at the end of the round.

DBS: 3 pts
OSS: 4 pts

Turn 3 - DBS
In order to win I had to end this last round by controlling more Quadrants than my opponent. My second Bulleteer managed to kill the Posthuman Sniper and then advanced to take out the Dakini HMG for a friggin third time this match. My Brawler Doc and the Digger, who had started the match as a Haris Fireteam together with the Druze SMR, but of course now were only a Duo, tried to squeeze through the gap that had opened with the Sniper dead, trying to take down the Deva and the Asura so that they couldn't dominate one of my Quadrants just by being more pricy than what I had left. The Deva died to the Diggers Chain Rifle, but the Asura of course made both her saves and even killed the Digger in return with her suppressive fire.

Turn 3 - OSS
Straeyve's plan was simple now: Use the Asura to kill my Brawler Doc and the Bulleteer so that his remaining cheap bots would dominate this quadrant and then move the Asura up into one of mine, taking 3 Quadrants and the win for himself. The only problem with the plan: He didn't have enough Orders left to do it all. The Asura killed my Brawler Doc but then couldnt move far enough to reach my Bulleteer, which waited around the next corner. With that the match ended with me dominating the 2 Quadrants in front of my Deployment Zone and a third Quadrant thanks to the Bulleteer, giving 2 points to me and 0 to my opponent.

Match Results

DBS: 5 pts
OSS: 4 pts

A victory for DBS, finally! The match started great for me but got more and more intense with each turn. Once again I experienced how Order effective OSS can be, especially the Asura Lt, who was worth her weight in gold and almost won the match single handedly by taking out Scarface and clearing the quadrants. Only 1 Order more and I most likely would've lost! On my part, the Bulleteers did most of the heavy lifting, just as planned actually, and they will definitely see more table time in future matches.

This was our last match for this campaign. But although the campaign may end, the battles won't! Thanks to all who read, commented and rated my battle reports, may the dice gods shine their light on you!

Outro
Sada peeked a corner, her rifle fed with a freshly loaded magazine, just to see a slender figure disappear in the distant thicket. Her adrenaline told her to pursue the enemy, but her trained mind knew better. She checked her tactical map and opened up a channel on her Comlog.
"Firebird-6 to Mission Control, the enemy is retreating. I repeat, the enemy is retreating. We need MedEvac as soon as possible, seven WIA. Sending automated status report."
There was a moment of unnerving silence before her call was answered by a male voice.
"This is Mission Control, status report confirmed, MedEvac is underway. Good job, Firebirds."
She walked the perimeter for a few minutes before finally slumping against a nearby wall. Her whole body was trembling, the pain in her chest now throbbing against her ribcage. Around her, the unscathed members of her troop were busy securing and examining the area. Sada let them attend to their business, she was done for the day, and also probably for the one after. She took off her helmet to get a breath of fresh air and tilted her head, taking in the view.
The sky above was of a darkening red color, with dusk slowly turning into nightfall. At about this time the lamps of the laboratory buildings lit up, illuminating the area with white light. Sada, blinded by the sudden brightness, looked as a shadow emerged from one of the buildings, its disfigured stature slowly forming into the shape of a man as he came closer to her position and finally stopped a few metres away. A pair of gleaming blue eyes stared at her, embedded in a dark helmet from which a single fin protruded from the back of the head. With a hissing sound the faceplate tilted back and gave way to Erol's face. It wore a faint smile.
"You look like shit, right now, Lieutenant."
"Well and you always look like shit, Erol", Sada managed to answer. He grinned, but then put on a more serious expression.
"We found her."
Sada shot up with a painful moan, trying to keep straight face.
"Is she alive?"
"I'm not sure, barely I guess."
"Fuck. Show me."
Erol began leading her into the building he had just left.
"Have you informed the Commander?"
"No, I'll leave this honor to you, of course."
He stepped into a small room to their left, where a single bed stood between a mess of strange-looking devices. A woman lay in the bed, wrapped up in a thin blanket and attached to half a dozen medical tubes. Parts of her body looked as if she had been burned on a pyre.
Sada looked at her for a moment, bewildered, and then opened up private channel.
"Firebird-6 to Antares. Intel was right. Firebird-2 was kept here. She's in our custody, now."
Suddenly, the woman shifted as if in a feverish dream, before sinking back lifelessly into the sheets.
Sada gasped.
"And she is still alive."