Durgama Takeover

The day dawned, the first rays of sunlight filtered through the clouds to brighten up the world of Durgama. It prompted a sense of hope in Amari, a feeling that a new day would bring new possibilities for the human sphere.

Amari could perceive its warm embrace filtering through the bulletproof glass of her armoured vehicle as they raced across the Cameliard landscape.

She looked out as they rode along the dirt road, seeing the suns light rippling over the lavender fields, illuminating a sole oak tree that rose up defiant, towering over the rest of the scenery.

*** Incoming data package from Aleph command ***

Amari closed her eyes and waved her hand, activating her connection to Aleph system. Her eyebrows twinged as she felt the familiar sting of data downloading directly to her consciousness, a sense of floating, as her mind moulded and assimilated the new information.

Her senses soon returned as the download completed.

The official story was that their mission was to investigate and secure a remote facility that had recently gone dark and cut itself off from the rest of the human sphere.

The truth however, was much more sinister. In recent confrontations with the combined army, the Knights of New Rilaspur had secured a relic of unknown origin or purpose before cutting themselves off from both Aleph and the Panoceania government.

Aleph had previously sent a small detachment of Dakinis, under the leadership of Science Officer Chen Mao to secure the relics safe transport back to Aleph High Command for further investigation and analysis.

But this advance team had gone dark.

To prevent political backlash, the Panoceanian government had swiftly agreed to turn a blind eye as Alephs strike team Omniscient was deployed to the area.

“We’re here,” Oran said as the vehicle came to a grinding halt. Amari looked up and saw the town in the distance, it almost looked peaceful, she thought.

“We need to secure the town’s armoury and prevent this escalating further Oran. Civilian lives are to be protected at all costs.”

Amari’s empathy for humans had always confused Oran, but then again they were all programmed differently, he thought to himself.




Soon after, Amari’s team advanced slowly into the city, mechanised infantry moving in unison.
The early morning sun quickly evaporated what remained of the rain from the night before.

The team stalked through the city streets, avoiding densely populated areas, until they at last reached their destination. Freezing in place, Oran raised his hand, gesturing for the team to stop. Amari connected to his consciousness through the net, “Black Friar, up there on the bridge.”

Amari let out a sigh, her hopes of de-escalating the conflict deflated. Looking around at her team, she telepathically ordered two of the Dakini onto the roof of the building next to them, as the rest of the squad scouted forward.

The Dakini’s climbed to the top of the building without incident and assumed their position. Oran accessed the Probots hacking software, activating Assisted Fire on the Dakini wielding the sniper rifle.

He looked in Amari’s direction, realising she had engaged her impersonation mode, he took charge of leading the team, ordering the Dakini to engage the enemy.

The Dakinis sprung to life, each one approaching the armoury, as the Black Friar opened fire. An explosion in the wall of the building where the Dakini sniper stood threw debris and dust in the air but the Dakini’s enhanced programming kicked in, it dropped low and unleashed three shots, each one a deafening bang to ordinary humans.

Oran saw the familiar red mist which confirmed the Dakini’s shot had hit home, before he recognised the silhouette of a Fugazi threatening their position. He ordered the Dakini to engage and again the roar of the sniper rifle pierced through his audio suppressors.

The bullets struck their intended target, the Fugazi slumped down, nothing more than a crumpled mess of metal and wire.

Sensing the shift in momentum in battle, Oran ordered the Dakini to stop, he looked out over the battlefield and saw that Amari was on the move, she clung to the shadow of a small car, darting behind a lorry that had been abandoned in the recent crossfire. Metre by metre she crept closer to the armoury.

“Look out!” Oran quickly messaged as a Trinitarian revealed itself from camouflage, breaking Amari’s concentration and forcing her out of impersonation state.

Amari doubled back at a speed that would break the spine of a non-enhanced being. In half a second she located where the Trinitarian had been hiding and fired off round after round, until the Panocean Infiltrator collapsed under the repeated strikes from her multi rifle.

“He’s down, move up,” Amari uploaded to the team, diverting her attention back to the security scanner ahead that was impeding her way into the armoury.

The Dakini team shifted their position, two of them preparing to breach after their leader had secured entry. Oran could hear shouting and the sound of a motorcycle revving in the distance, they didn’t have long before the might of the remaining Military order was upon them.

The sniper loosed another round of bullets pinning the Teutonic Knights that were trying to enter the fray from a different direction. They dodged, backed into cover, firing off a panzerfaust which set vehicles ablaze as they were caught in the explosion.

The digital message, “I’m in,” appeared in Oran’s field of vision; Amari had successfully hacked into the armoury’s mainframe, doors opened and the two Dakini bots rushed in whilst the final Dakini pulled back into a defensive position.

That was when she saw it, the Relic.

It sat in the centre of the armoury mounted on what looked like a shrine, candles flickering ominously in a circle around it. Amari approached, feeling the pull of its intensity, reaching to touch the Relic but something in her programming warned her not to do it. She circled around it, inspecting it from different angles.

It looked like a hexagon but each side had strange markings carved into it which pulsed with an inhuman rhythm.

Meanwhile, Oran crouched under the stairs to a nearby roof, his radar detecting a new threat rapidly approaching.

His curiosity was answered by a strange shadow looming overhead. He looked up seeing the cobalt armour of a Crusader Brethren’s crimson tabard billowing in the wind as he parachuted in.

A loud thud of the crusader landing announced his arrival into the battle, forcing multiple members of the team to redirect their attentions.

The Knight moved with rehearsed motion, each stride attempting to deliver death wherever he went.

The first to face him was the Mark I Proxy that had recently been standing only feet away form Oran, the sound of a boarding shotgun brought a swift end to the engineer, who collapsed onto the floor seconds from his commanding officer.

“Engineer down,” he messaged to Amari who returned a ping of recognition.

Oran could hear rock and metal crunching under the weight of the Crusader’s boots as he stormed towards the Dakini sniper only metres above him; a gunfight swiftly breaking out, another member of the team’s vital signs faded from Oran’s HUD.

Additional threats incoming, Oran’s programming screamed at him to move, he attempted to look around the corner but couldn’t make out the camouflaged being advancing amongst the now spreading carnage.

The Crusader continued it’s vendetta, maximising the destructive efforts. With each step, the Knight advanced on a Mark IV Proxy. Gunfire exchanged but the Knight continued on, bringing it’s boarding shotgun to level, as the Proxy fired off its heavy rocket launcher. The dust settled and the Knight stood resolute.

The remaining Dakini on the rooftop sprung into life once more, leaping forward, combo rifle singing, each blow bouncing off the Crusader’s armour. The Crusader let out a defiant laugh, returning fire with his shotgun, forcing the Dakini to dive down out of the way.

Whilst the Dakini had failed to delivery the fatal blow, it absorbed the Crusader’s attention for just long enough to allow Oran to get behind him. Oran darted towards the Crusader, his own boarding shot gun connecting and tearing through the Knight’s armour; a wheezy cough then a small gurgle and blood oozed from between the cracks in the Crusader’s breastplate.

Their flank secured, the Aleph task force returned their focus to the enemy in front of them.

One of the remaining Dakini’s moved up, settling into a supressive-fire stance, tilting it’s head slightly to the left before letting out a round of fire into the nearby container.

*TARGET SPOTTED* it relayed to the remainder of the team,

Amari realised they were in danger when a final Trinitarian revealed itself on the opposite side of the armoury; the two of them were attempting to pincer the Aleph force inside of the armoury.

She understood that recovering the relic would never be easy but for the normally chivalrous Knights to renounce their oaths and attack the agents of Aleph with such ferocity caused in her what would pass for concern in lesser species.

She activated her impersonation state once again, sprinting to the nearest exit of the armoury, attempting to break free from the trap but it was already sprung; sniper shells clattered into her chest forcing her off her feet.

For a moment Amari felt as though she had run headfirst into an oncoming train, she lay on her back arms clawing at her chest. Her built in armour had taken the hit but the impact had ruptured her flesh and dented her sub thermal plating inwards towards her core.

She crawled to cover, trying to analyse how best to counter the threat. The Trinitarian was well entrenched though, perched high up on a bridge between a flat complex and a local convenience store.

She knew that she wouldn’t be able to aim long enough with her multi rifle to eliminate the threat and her nanopulsar would never reach from this distance. Her analysis was interrupted as gunfire echoed in the area around her, she reached out digitally, trying to spotlight the Knight but he was too far away for her short range hacking device.

The Knight fired shots with it’s multi sniper in her direction ricocheting off the lorry she was using as makeshift cover.

“I’m pinned down,” she uploaded into her comms array, before a swift “Acknowledged,” came in reply. 

The final Proxy that responded was an Advanced Mark II model, equipped with state of the art camouflage systems; a modern day apex predator. Embittered by the loss of it’s two other bodies, it silently stalked it’s prey, seemingly blending into the scenery, before climbing onto a set of nearby crates and peering over the edge of the bridge. Spotting it’s target, it lifted itself up behind the Trinitarian.

The Proxy slowed, timing each step with a shot from the Trinitarian’s weapon. The prey never had a chance to react before the Proxy loomed behind it, shotgun in hand, it brought swift justice to the Lieutenant’s attacker.

“Threat eliminated,”

Amari acknowledged, ordering the Proxy to secure it’s position before she returned to the Dakini duo inside the armoury.

Once inside, she turned her attention to the panoply, rummaging through shelves before finding a customised adhesive launcher capable of firing an additional shot each time.

Amari’s consciousness reached out to the network, ordering more of her troops inside, the closest Lamedh was the first to respond, it crawled around a nearby wall before scuttling to the entrance of the armoury and took up position against the far wall, laying in wait for anyone attempting to break into the room.

Amari activated it’s wireless network, extending her team’s hacking range and allowing the remaining Proxy to Carbonite one of the Teutonic as that was preparing to storm the building.
The Knight’s digital defences held but Amari could sense the panic enveloping the Knights as they desperately attempted to reclaim the room.

The Knightly Order’s retaliation began in earnest, the final Trinitarian moved up dodging past the suppressive fire from a member of the Dakini fire team. An officer from the Raveneye substation descended on the armoury, throwing out cybermines that would trigger against any of the Aleph attack team should they get too close.

He then stormed the armoury alone, a tactical error from one so experienced. As he rushed into the room, the Dakinis that had set up mowed him down; he fired a nanopulsar shot as he died that took down the Lamedh who had only recently taken up position.

A group of Teutonic Knights came next, armoured steps beating the ground, they charged towards the armoury, a panzerfaust shot catching Amari in the blast, fracturing her armour and exposing her core.

A Dakini threw itself in-front of the Relic protecting their mission objective and attempting to stop the Knight’s charge. It fired shot after shot at the entrance until its ammo clip ran out, before reloading and firing again within a heart beat.

This gave Amari the moment she needed to recompose herself, the Knights had inadvertently walked into her hacking network.

She fired off virtual attack after virtual attack, one arm propping her up against the wall behind, whilst she focused her attentions on the task. Carbonite and Oblivion programs broke down the Knight’s firewalls and shut down their mechanised armour, turning their greatest defence against them.

At this point it was over, the Knights fought vigorously against the weight of their power armour but couldn’t move. Oran charged up beside the armoury, flanking them, he unleashed shell after shell into the alleyway, killing two of the Knights where they stood,

The last Teutonic Knight, in an act of bewildering defiance broke free from Amari’s digital attacks, his armour’s power restored, he leapt with bullish force at Oran, knocking him off his feet. Amari watched helplessly, her frame unable to move as the Knight struck down slicing Oran in half before fleeing away from the scene.

The Knights were pulling back and regrouping, Amari attempted to reach for her multi rifle but in her current state there was little she could do to pursue them.

She looked around her whilst the remaining members of the Aleph strike force rallied on her position. She saw the Relic remained intact, it’s lights still pulsing in a haunting manner, there was something unnatural about the technology the combined army used and she hoped that securing this asset would provide vital intel that could turn the tide of the Durgama conflict in the Human Sphere’s favour.

But at what cost; whilst her and Oran’s bodies could be rebuilt, the Knightly order had turned it’s back on humanity, choosing instead to protect an enemy relic with their lives, and having briefly felt felt it’s powers, this fact haunted Amari…