Durgama Takeover

„What the hell?!”
Sniper muttered under his breath.
The enemy Tag pilot was clearly high on alien pheromones, why else would it stroll out in front of a
heavy weapon squad on owerwatch? His crew was positioned there to lock down the biggest
possible area of Raveneye station’s Comms Room, while the hacking specialists extract the data and
the hired muscle – mostly in the form of a 3 metres tall genetic abomination – destroys the servers.
Their job was to not let the enemy put his head out of cover without risking having it blown off.
Rocket was as per usual not in philosophical mood.
„Blow the fool to bits!” He yelled, his high explosive warheads already trailing smoke on their way to
their target.
The warmachine was not wasting time either, releasing a hail of bullets into their position in one on
the comms room’s elevated main hubs.
Sniper was not one to be impressed by such indiscriminate fire, and placed his anti material bullets
meticulously into the impact holes caused by Rocket’s shots instantly crippling the outdated tag,
prompting it to release his operator.
Until now this contract seemed pretty easy, even if he felt a bit uneasy working for, and possibly
with, aliens. But then again as far as he was concerned, as long as they require hired guns and pay
generously, it doesnt matter what colour their blood is.
On the other flank he saw movement for a second, then the entire area went dark in spite of his visor
looted from a cocky intruder long ago.
Tohaa magic. He cursed.
„Three contacts below me. Moving fast, one heavy.”, came through the vox. Zhēnchá was positioned
on the highest point of the area, at a shuttle landing pad.
„So the flankers chose to take the vantage point and fiddled with the console there. Do not engage
until you have absolute favorable odds.” Lieutenant ordered, needlessly, sniper thought. Zhēnchá
was not one of rushed decisions.
„Acknowledged”
Suddenly one of the comm workers shuddered and leapt up from behind the concrete wall at which
the slender form of valerya gromoz was lying hidden. She barely had time to cry out in a mix of
confusion and panic, as the viral shots found their target and the hologram revealed father forza in
his dying throes. The tricker got tricked.
„Oh no, sounds like gramps got melted”, came the somewhat cynical radio message from
McMurrough, as the impersonator went down in a hail of explosions and gunfire.
„Let’s give them a taste of our fangs!” The dog warrior growled and leapt toward the antenna
building, but suddenly whimpered as a pheromonic creature assaulted his senses, and cutting his
communications off.
The Kum rider’s bike roared as he charged forward and covered his advance with smoke. Hardly
suprisingly, the road warrior was however not content with just tactical support duty, and tried to
put down the Anaconda operator hiding at a comms hub, all he managed though was dent his
armour, when all of a sudden, his radio also went static.
„Engaging priority target”, Zhēnchá stated. Two distant, heavy impacts of boarding shotgun shells,
and the landing platform got alien blood splattered all over it.
„Hostile killer hacker neutr….”, then static.
„Zhēnchá got stunked too”, mused Hacker. „This is starting to be a problem. We shoudve brought
some tincans. Also, the aproaches are being watched by those concealed fish sticks, with big dog out
of the picture we need something to break through!”
A short burst of inhuman curses on the radio signalled the disgruntlement of their own liberto on
hearing the derogative term.
„Sergeant, deploy smoke cover”, came the order through the vox.
Two metallic thumps and the grenades extended te smokescreen to cover the middle ground.
Suddenly without a word the motorized 112 set out into the smoke after the Kum full throttle.
„Funny, I didnt even realize we got a medic.”, Rocket shook his head. „Hey Doc, biker guy is still
kicking, why u trailing him?”
Sniper realized just a moment ago why, and observed in mild amusement as the motorized medic’s
shape changed into a stout, four legged attack remote under the cover of smoke.
„Clever move, lieutenant”, he thought. „Ghulams might not be the best shots or even impressive
warriors, but they are pretty cunning.”
The Lu Duán’s heavy main armament started barking, turning one of the fishmen into a bloody ruin, a
painful shout came from the hiding spot ot the Tag-pilot’s hiding place and another Helot got burnt
to a crisp by the attack remote flamers, then it went into suppression fire mode, locking down the
enemy’s movement in the backline.
The expected reaction came soon after. The Tag’s support team was on the move to dig out the
remote, its holo-generator once again in full working mode. Sniper’s team watched from afar as the
gunfight intensified, but finally the high caliber cannon on the Lu Duán went still, a slim trail of smoke
rising from where it stood. The Kum rider also bit the dust under heavy breaker fire.
Now again, movement on the landing pad, too bad he did not have a shot on the bastards.
„Taking heavy fire!”, ghulam shouted into the comm link, „heavy infantry with support weapon up
high!”
Sniper again, couldn’t help but respect the simple line troops, as he put up a hard fight before going
down to a throaty burst of an automatic weapon, he even managed to peel off the protective
slimebug from the attacker’s armour with an exeptionally well placed shot.
„..communication systems again operat….”, Zhēnchá’s voice in the radio got muted again just as
quickly as it appeared.
„That seems to bore even him to death!”, came the expected irony from under Rocket’s gasmask,
but true enough, the power armoured form of the skirmisher leapt out of the ventilation shaft he
was hiding in, and while the hostiles were occupied with their own firefights, two short bursts of his
boarding shotgun put down the remaining Tohaa on the landing platform for good.
„Thats as far as he will go without radio intel.”, Hacker remarked, with obvius envy that her
counterpart got a rather hefty part of the combat already, and came out of it looking like a total
badass.
„Weapon squad, engage the enemy and take position Beta!” Came the order.
„Keep your head in your game, computer whiz,”, Sniper snapped, „we move out!”
The two Diggers he hired to bodyguard his support squad from close quarter nuisances cackled in
anticipation as their makeshift exoskeletons slowly gathered forward momentum, their crude but
destructive weaponry whirring and smoking. Sniper knew Rocket was also smiling like a madman
under his vintage rebreather, for a heavy weapon expert he nurtured an unhealthy fascination for
getting into the thick of fights, but Hacker was understandably uneasy about leaving the safety of
their position.
They crossed the killing field without any resistence though, as always, their superior firepower made
sure that no trace of enemy gunmen could remain in overwatch. The problem was, they had to
deliver Hacker onto a big Comms complex, just around where the kum went silent and later, dead.
Sniper realized the trap awaiting them but the brawny digger spoke sooner.
„Stink witch,” he snarled, „you will need to go around, girl!”
„Hold!” Lieutenant ordered. „One last helot still breathing.” Hacker turned pale as she realized this
could have just been her last step.
„Sergeant, smokescreen!”
„Roger, roger”, then came the anticipated thump. And another. And another, still nothing.
„Damn, duds, all of them!” Came the frustrating message.
„You got to be kidding..”, thought sniper, but then suddenly McMurrough appeared across him in a
firelane, sprinting, ducking under heavy enemy fire, hiding from them in smoke, then, with herculean
strenght, he threw a smoke grenade through half of the mighty hall, covering the aproach of Hacker
right to the console.
„Yess! Now go, go, go!!”
Hacker climbed up the platform, rolled onto the floor, and reached the computer.
„Hurry up you dont have much time!”
„Shhh!” she yelled, typing on the holographic keyboard franticly
„Tell me she’s got this, boss!” Rocket murmured
„Yes… no! NO!” Hacker screamed, sparks flying around her hacking visor.
„I cant believe this!” Sniper sighed, „Get into cover, now!” His resignation turning into panic in an
instant as an enemy brawler emerged, sights on Hacker, still preoccupied with her miserable attempt
at the console.
The burst of a submachine gun, a short, weak cry, and her comms went silent.
„Lietenant, we lost our hacker… For Fucks sake!” He exclaimed suddenly, looking at Rocket, standing
there, looking somewhat confused, not a word from his comm-link.. he wandered out during the
hacking fiasco and got pheromoned..
„Next time don’t believe the bullshit the ariadnan Quartermaster is telling you about 2 century old
rebreathers blocking tohaa witchery, idiot”, he said, mostly just to himself.
But he knew all too well that this situation is starting to look rather bad, they are out in the open,
half his team is out of action, and enemy troops are on the move.
Just as expected, they soon came under fire, and Rocket collapsed, along with the female digger, who
for some unexplained reason toted a heavy sniper rifle along her repurposed mining equipment. One
of the alien slave-dwarves came out to finish the job with a flamethrower, all sniper could do was
explode his head while his team was already a smoking wreck.
„Time to retreat, and fight another day, soldiers” ,Lieutenant’s voice, as always, failed to show any
emotion. Sniper suspected for some time now that he might be a speculo agent, so readily fighting
alongside this so-called combined army.
„We cannot obtain the crucial data without specialists, no need to waste men, or equipment for that
matter.”
Sniper suddenly almost jumped as he heard a voice, not in his radio, but right next to him.
„Go, retreat, i shall cover you and maybe take some of them with me.” The owner of the voice
materialized from thin air, thanks to his high tech cloaking device. Even now he was barely visible to
the naked eye, but snipers visor allowed him to recognize the assassin known as Saito Tógan.
„Honour demands not to leave a fight without shedding blood.”
With that he did not waste any time and vaulted out in the open and gunned down the last Fish-man.
He did not anticipate the last tohaa lurking there and his assault was cut short by a lucky hit.
„Srew that, i will get paid, one way or another!” Sniper rarely lost his patience but the thought of
sulking away from a fight which started so promising irked him to no end. He will need to patch up
his crew and their stuff, recover their cubes, restock ammunition. His bile was rising.
Then, he glimpsed something – or rather, someone, someone important through the railing of a
container, at a rather weak attempt to hide. He smiled under the skull painting of his visor.
„Oh, sweetheart you are coming with me.”